Murder In The Consulate: Oscar Contender 'Kingdom Of Silence' Parses Brutal Killing Of Journalist
For years the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi walked a tightrope—balancing his access to powerful Saudi Royals while pushing for reform in the kingdom—until the tightrope became a noose.
Khashoggi’s murder in 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul—where a “kill team” allegedly dispatched by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman suffocated and then dismembered him—brought a gruesome end to a career of remarkable firsts. Among Kashoggi’s journalistic scoops had been reporting on his fellow Saudi Osama bin Laden, long before anyone in the West paid much attention to the radical Islamist.
“He was right there at the beginning when al-Qaeda was being formed, the first journalist to ever take a photograph of Bin Laden,” notes Rick Rowley, director of Kingdom of Silence, the Showtime documentary about Khashoggi. “He was right there in the halls of power in London and in Washington and in Riyadh after September 11th, when the U.S.-Saudi relationship was being re-navigated. He was right there when the Arab Spring erupted.”
Kingdom of Silence, which is contending for Oscar recognition, shows how Khashoggi tried to do the impossible—that is, practice true journalism in a country where the few hold power and there is no such thing as a First Amendment.
https://deadline.com/2020/12/kingdom-of-silence-director-rick-rowley-jamal-khashoggi-showtime-documentary-interview-news-1234661326/
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