The award-winning documentary The Dissident, produced by MPI co-founder and Human Rights Foundation president Thor Halvorssen, has enjoyed great success since its digital release on popular streaming platforms, including Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video. The documentary most recently took the award for Best Documentary Screenplay at the Writers Guild Awards and was also nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Documentary by the British Academy of Film and Television.

Directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Bryan Fogel (Icarus), the documentary thriller exposes the truth behind the shocking October 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey. MPI’s Rob Pfaltzgraff and Lana Link served as co-executive producers. 

The Dissident premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2020 to rave reviews and has since captivated audiences worldwide, screening at top festivals, including DOC NYC, the Zurich Film Festival, the Stockholm International Film Festival, Aspen Filmfest, Middleburg Film Festival, and SCAD Savannah Film Festival. The film itself was the target of an extensive online smear campaign by the Saudi dictatorship that was featured widely in media across the world including the Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and TIME.

The film is “Certified Fresh” on RottenTomatoes.com with stellar reviews from the likes of Variety, Hollywood Reporter, and RogerEbert.com praising the film as “staggeringly relevant,” “riveting,” “first rate,” and “most important film of the year.” 

“The Dissident is a chilling illustration of what results from unchecked power,” says Halvorssen. “It shines a powerful light on the darkness of authoritarianism. Dictatorships are undone by public exposure, and we are committed to taking this story across the world, enlisting the partnership of the general public and civil society across the political and ideological spectrum to hold the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and his henchmen accountable.”

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