Australian director Phillip Noyce shoots feature film for Saudi Arabia celebrating ‘heroism of security men in combating drugs’ | Saudi Arabia

Prominent Australian filmmaker Phillip Noyce is being paid by the Saudi regime to make a feature film depicting the oppressive state’s narcotics officers as heroes.

Based on an actual Saudi Ministry of Interior narcotics case, Watchful Eyes is billed as a dramatic portrayal of the “heroism of security officials in the fight against drugs.”

Saudi authorities executed 356 people last year, including 243 for drug-related cases, and analysts say the increase in the kingdom’s execution rate is largely due to its “war on drugs.”

Noyce has a decades-long career directing such productions as the 1970s classics Newsfront, Dead Calm, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger and The Bone Collector.

Filming on The Watchful Eyes began in Saudi Arabia in December and will be released this year.

Saudi Gazette news site reported: “The film will be shot entirely in the Kingdom and is expected to deliver a compelling artistic experience that highlights the heroism of Saudi security forces and introduces their crime-fighting efforts to audiences around the world.”

Noyce, 76, is escorted to filming locations and prisons by royal advisor Turki al-Sheikh, who pursues allegations of human rights abuses, including his detention. people criticizing him on social media.

Al-Sheikh, head of the country’s General Entertainment Authority, is known internationally for spearheading Saudi Arabia’s bid to dominate world boxing and initiating moves to increase its influence on international football.

Al-Sheikh, a close confidant of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, posted numerous photos and videos from “the great director Phillip Noyce” and said The Watchful Eyes was a film “inspired by a true story taken from the case files of Saudi Arabia’s anti-drug officials.”

Noyce said he accepted the job because of “the challenge of working outside my comfort zone” and “the opportunity to investigate a previously closed society,” but did not address specific questions about the ethics of making a film paid for by the Saudi regime.

The Saudi government is using its massive investments in sports and entertainment as part of a strategy to whitewash its human rights record, said Joey Shea, senior Saudi researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“Given the public subject matter of this film and the reality of the human rights abuses that are inextricably linked to this new war on drugs by the Saudi government, the role that these narratives may play in obscuring the reality of these executions that have been carried out over the last several years is deeply troubling,” Shea said.

Watchful Eyes is described by officials as a “massive production” and a “great Saudi epic”.

Noyce said the film was financed and produced by Saudi entertainment company Sela, which is backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, with the aim of producing content that will stimulate the local film industry.

The regime aims to make the country a leading global manufacturing destination as part of Prince Mohammed’s Vision 2030 plan for economic diversification to reduce dependence on the oil industry.

Noyce described The Watchful Eyes as a “low-budget kidnapping thriller”.

“I don’t think the film, which is bold, crude and shot entirely in Arabic, will attract tourists to Saudi Arabia,” he said.

When asked about the country’s human rights record and executions for drug crimes, Noyce said: “I suppose the story could be edited to send an anti-drug message, but the story I shot was told from the highly emotional perspective of the lead detective searching for a missing child.

“Surprisingly, Sela did not interfere once from a creative standpoint.”

In March the BBC was accused of making “glowing propaganda films” after its commercial arm colluded with the Saudis.

Jeed Basyouni, who researches capital punishment in the region for the non-governmental organization Reprieve, said the number of executions continues to rise in Saudi Arabia as authorities sell a false vision of the kingdom.

“It is crucial that the world sees this rebranding as a flimsy attempt to hide brutal violations of human rights,” he said.

“The purpose of culturewashing is to legitimize human rights abuses by the Saudi regime, using art, comedy and film to portray a tolerant government, when in reality anyone who offends the men in power risks being killed.”

The Public Investment Fund has supported the LIV Golf Tour with more than $5 billion since 2021, but the funding will end at the end of the year, partly due to conflict in the Middle East.