Why Netflix snubbed an Oscar winner's politically charged documentary

Bryan Fogel's The Dissident attracted high praise at Sundance last year for its telling of the killing of Saudi Arabian dissident Jamal Khashoggi, but received no expressions of interest from the streaming service or any of its rivals.

Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. AP

Nicole Sperling

Jan 7, 2021 – 3.14pm

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Bryan Fogel's first documentary, Icarus, helped uncover the Russian doping scandal that led to the country's expulsion from the 2018 Winter Olympics. It also won an Oscar for him and for Netflix, which released the film.

For his second project, he chose another subject with global interest: the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi Arabian dissident and Washington Post columnist, and the role that the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, played in it.