critics consensus

Kingdom of Silence takes a panoramic view of Jamal Kasshogi's career and its impact on U.S.-Saudi relations, yielding a sobering account of one man's life and the two nations he straddled. Read critic reviews

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Movie Info

Genre:

documentary
Original Language:

English
Director:

Rick Rowley

Cast & Crew

Unknown Actor

Rick Rowley
Director

News & Interviews for Kingdom of Silence

TV Premiere Dates 2020

View All

Critic Reviews for Kingdom of Silence

All Critics (16) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (14) | Rotten (2)

[It] helps us better understand why our leaders need to represent the high ideals of our country and when they stray, bad things can and will happen.

October 21, 2020 | Rating: A- | Full Review…

Danny Minton
Houston Chronicle
Aided by an impressive roster of participants, it provides a clear and enraging picture of the tangled geopolitical dynamics which Khashoggi helped define, and which ultimately ensnared him.

October 8, 2020 | Full Review…

Nick Schager
The Daily Beast
...as much about the complicated, co-dependent and sometimes toxic relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia as it about the man himself.

October 8, 2020 | Rating: 4/4 | Full Review…

Richard Roeper
Chicago Sun-Times
In examining Khashoggi's professional life from its beginning... to its untimely end, Rowley draws a map of how journalistic censorship can extinguish a nation's democratic ambitions almost overnight.

October 5, 2020 | Full Review…

Melanie McFarland
Salon.com
Respectful but not hagiographic.

October 5, 2020 | Full Review…

Leslie Felperin
Hollywood Reporter
A compelling profile not just of Khashoggi, but of the United States' relationship with Saudi Arabia, the documentary charts a quixotic path, from young reporter to self-exiled critic of his homeland.

October 3, 2020 | Full Review…

Kevin Crust
Los Angeles Times
Khashoggi was a sometimes slippery man. Yet he was inarguably brave: "You are in a war, you cannot give up, you cannot disappear." His steadfastness shames our government tactics to go along and get along.

December 10, 2020 | Full Review…

Richard von Busack
SF Weekly
It's stifled by the fact that many of the "experts" on the subject stand by the party line that US support of Saudi Arabia is necessary for "stability" in the region.

November 17, 2020 | Full Review…

Dan Schindel
Hyperallergic
It's an eye-opening, infuriating, but very well put-together look at an international tragedy.

October 8, 2020 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Stephen Silver
The National Interest
...may be one of the most important docs you will see all year, spending needed time on an event that modern cable news simply didn't seem to have time to explain properly.

October 8, 2020 | Rating: B+ | Full Review…

Tom Santilli
Movie Show Plus
But the movie is made in such a way that it renders what should be even the quiet and plaintive moments into a frenetic dog's breakfast of filmmaking tricks and gimmicks.

October 8, 2020 | Full Review…

Glenn Dunks
The Film Experience
What stays with you is not the horrifying details of Khashoggi's killing but rather the chilling silence that followed.

October 3, 2020 | Rating: B+ | Full Review…

Chris Barsanti
The Playlist