Kingdom of Silence (2020)

An in-depth look at Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi's life, work, and murder. Featuring interviews and footage that explore his personal and professional relationships with Saudi rulers, jihadists and fellow global journalists.

Director:

Rick Rowley

Stars:

Nasser Faris, Lawrence Wright, Jamal Khashoggi

Cast

Credited cast:
Nasser Faris	...	Jamal Khashoggi (voice)
Lawrence Wright	...	Self
Jamal Khashoggi	...	(archive footage)
Ben Rhodes	...	Self
John O. Brennan	...	Self (as John Brennan)
Ali Soufan	...	Self
David Rundell	...	Self
Richard Clarke	...	Self
Laila Al Shaikhli	...	Self
Maggie Mitchell Salem	...	Self
Hanan El-Atr	...	Self
Nawaf Obaid	...	Self
Mohamed Soltan	...	Self
Abdullah Anas	...	Self
Tarek Fawaz	...	Self

Storyline

An in-depth look at Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi's life, work, and murder amidst the complexity of U.S.-Saudi Arabia relations. Exclusive interviews explore Khashoggi's connections with Saudi rulers, Middle Eastern jihadists and fellow global journalists, as well as his enduring global legacy.

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Genres:

Documentary

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Did You Know?

Trivia

Would mark writer/director Alex Gibney's fourth collaboration with writer Lawrence Wright, after My Trip to Al-Qaeda (2010), Going Clear: Scientogy and the Prison of Belief (2015) and The Looming Tower (2018).

User Reviews

Reconstructing the brazen and merciless murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

"Kingdom of Silence" (2020 release; 101 min.) is a documentary about the vicious murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudi government. As the movie opens, we see some of the now infamous 2018 footage of the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, where Jamal Khashoggi walks in but never exits. We then go back in time as a voice over retells Khashoggi's upbringing and his early days as a war journalist in Afghanistan in the 1980s where all forces combined to expel the Soviets. It's where Khashoggi gets to know Osama Bin Laden. Eventually Khoshaggi becomes a spokesperson at the Saudi Embassy in London, but then things take a turn... At this point we are 10 min, into this documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest work from Oscar-nominated documentarian Rick Rowley ("The Dirty Wars"). (Seemingly omni-resent Alex Gibney executive-produced this.) Here Rowley looks back at the life and times of Jamal Khashoggi, once an ally of and spokesperson for the Saudi royal family. Along the way we get a reminder of the complicated history and alliance between the US and Saudi Arabia, highlighted by 3 monumental events: the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s, 9/11, and the Arab Spring in 2011. Khashoggi was a close observer of those events. He was a "loyal" Saudi, and yet he ended up on the opposite side of the Saudi royal family. Why and how? Just watch. The last 30 min. of the documentary painstakingly reconstruct and detail the brazen and merciless murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Beware: the footage (video and audio) is not for the faint of heart. The fact that the Saudi authorities even dared to claim ignorance and innocence of it all is just all the more shocking.

"Kingdom of Silence" premiered this weekend on Showtime and is not available on SHO On Demand and other streaming services. If you have any interest in geopolitics in general, or how one country can blatantly murder a citizen of its own, all while abroad and without apparent fear of retribution, I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.

Details

Official Sites:

SHOWTIME

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 October 2020 (USA)

Also Known As:

House of Saud

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jigsaw Productions, Showtime Documentary Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Color:

Color