The Dissident

A powerful and compelling presentation – potentially tough going for the first act, but Fogel still manages to marshal his facts and story beats with enough clarity to engross even the more casual observers among us. It’s dynamite once the investigation and dissection of the (quite terrifying) conspiratorial elements starts, with our hero Abdulaziz perhaps a little too passive on-screen to properly anchor proceedings, but the potency of the material more or less cancelling out any problems.

As of the time of this review, a streaming service finally had the guts to pick this up, though it is a smaller one that only gives access to some people with a public library card. The subject matter is so important, sad, and fascinating that it would have been tough to make a bad documentary about it. But the filmmaker got some access to some very important people, which I thought was a big strength. I thought some amazing details were just glossed over, but it was very good overall.

Fogel's style fits with the story of this documentary very well. At first I found it a bit one sided, but as it went on, you understand that there actually is no other way to put it. What a sad series of events, and what a sad little world. Politics of power and money.. Nothing else matters..

Gruelling in places and, of course, infuriating. But as a piece of entertainment, it doesn't have as compelling leads as other recent docs such as 'The Mole' and 'Collective'.