Anyone who offends the men in power risks winding up dead
In a kingdom where 243 people were executed for drug offences last year alone, an acclaimed Australian filmmaker has accepted Saudi state financing to craft a heroic portrait of the very enforcement apparatus driving those deaths. Phillip Noyce, whose career has long engaged with questions of justice and conscience, now finds himself at the center of a broader reckoning about what it means when art is enlisted in the service of power. The project illuminates an ancient tension: the degree to which creative autonomy can survive — or be claimed to survive — when the hand that holds the purse is also the hand that holds the sword.
- Saudi Arabia executed 356 people last year, 243 of them for drug offences, yet is simultaneously financing a film that celebrates its narcotics enforcement forces as heroes.
- Veteran director Phillip Noyce, guided through prisons and filming locations by a royal adviser facing his own human rights allegations, insists his creative independence was never compromised.
- Human rights researchers warn the production is not an isolated artistic choice but a calculated instrument in a coordinated 'culture-washing' campaign designed to launder the kingdom's international reputation.
- The film joins a pattern — LIV Golf, BBC partnerships, Vision 2030 entertainment investments — that suggests a systematic strategy to use cultural prestige as a shield against accountability.
- As the execution rate continues to rise, advocates warn that glamorizing the enforcement machinery behind it risks making the world complicit in normalizing what they call brutal and escalating abuses.
Phillip Noyce, the 76-year-old Australian director behind Rabbit-Proof Fence and Patriot Games, is currently in Saudi Arabia shooting The Watchful Eyes — a narcotics thriller financed by Sela, a Saudi entertainment company backed by the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund. The film follows drug enforcement officers searching for a missing child and has been described by Saudi officials as a celebration of the "heroism of security men in combating drugs."
The production sits in uncomfortable proximity to a stark reality: last year Saudi Arabia executed 356 people, 243 of them for drug-related offences. Analysts say the rising execution rate is substantially driven by the kingdom's own declared "war on drugs" — the very campaign the film is designed to glorify.
Noyce has been accompanied throughout filming by Turki al-Sheikh, a royal adviser and close confidant of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who has faced persistent allegations of detaining social media critics. When pressed on the ethics of the project, Noyce described it as a personal creative challenge and a chance to explore a "previously closed society," adding that Sela never interfered with his creative decisions. He acknowledged the film could theoretically be edited to carry an anti-drug message, but said he shot it from the emotional perspective of a detective searching for a child.
Human rights researchers are not persuaded by the artistic framing. Human Rights Watch's Joey Shea described the kingdom's entertainment investments as tools for whitewashing its record, calling the film's subject matter — given the reality of drug executions — "really, really disturbing." Reprieve's Jeed Basyouni named the broader pattern "culture-washing": deploying arts, comedy, and film to project an image of tolerance while anyone who offends those in power risks death.
The Watchful Eyes is part of a larger architecture. Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 plan explicitly aims to make the kingdom a global film production hub, and the Public Investment Fund has poured billions into sports and entertainment ventures worldwide. In March, the BBC's commercial arm faced similar accusations over Saudi-linked productions. The pattern points to something more deliberate than opportunism — a coordinated effort to reshape international perception through culture, even as the executions mount.
Phillip Noyce, the 76-year-old Australian director behind Newsfront, Patriot Games, and Rabbit-Proof Fence, is in Saudi Arabia making a film called The Watchful Eyes. The production, which began shooting in December and is set for release this year, tells the story of narcotics officers hunting for a missing child. It is being financed by Sela, a Saudi entertainment company backed by the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, and is described by officials as a "massive production" and "grand Saudi epic" that celebrates the "heroism of security men in combating drugs."
The timing of this project sits uneasily against the kingdom's execution record. Last year, Saudi Arabia executed 356 people. Of those, 243 were put to death for drug-related offences. Analysts tracking the kingdom's justice system say the rising execution rate is substantially driven by what officials call a "war on drugs." The film, in other words, is a heroic portrait of the enforcement apparatus behind one of the world's highest execution rates for narcotics crimes.
Noyce has been shepherded through filming locations and prisons by Turki al-Sheikh, a royal adviser and chair of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority who has faced persistent allegations of human rights violations, including the detention of social media critics. Al-Sheikh, a close confidant of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has posted photographs and videos celebrating "the great director Phillip Noyce" and describing the film as inspired by actual case files from Saudi drug enforcement.
When asked about the ethics of accepting work financed by a regime with such an extensive execution record, Noyce said he took the job "for the challenge of working outside my comfort zone" and to investigate "a previously closed society." He described The Watchful Eyes as "a low-budget kidnapping thriller," "gritty and raw and shot entirely in Arabic," and said he did not believe it would attract tourists to Saudi Arabia. On the substance of the kingdom's drug executions, he offered that the story could theoretically be edited to send an anti-drug message, but that he had shot it from the emotional perspective of a detective searching for a missing child. He also noted that Sela "never once interfered from a creative point of view."
Human rights researchers see the film as part of a deliberate strategy. Joey Shea, a senior Saudi Arabia researcher for Human Rights Watch, described the kingdom's massive investments in sport and entertainment as tools for whitewashing its human rights record. "Given the subject matter of this film from what's publicly available, combined with the reality of the rights abuses that have been so inextricably linked with this new war on drugs by the Saudi government, it's really, really disturbing the role that these narratives may play in covering up the reality of these executions," Shea said.
Jeed Basyouni, who researches the death penalty in the region for the legal action organization Reprieve, called the pattern "culture-washing"—using the arts to legitimize human rights abuses while portraying the government as tolerant. "It is essential that the world sees this rebranding for what it is – a flimsy attempt to disguise brutal abuses of human rights," she said. "The purpose of culture-washing is to legitimise the human rights abuses carried out by the Saudi regime, using the arts, comedy and film to portray a tolerant government when in reality, anyone who offends the men in power risks winding up dead."
The Watchful Eyes is not an isolated case. The kingdom is pursuing Vision 2030, an economic diversification plan that includes making Saudi Arabia a leading global film production destination. The Public Investment Fund, which backs this entertainment push, has also invested more than $5 billion in the LIV Golf Tour since 2021, though that funding is set to end by year's end. In March, the BBC's commercial arm faced similar accusations of producing "glossy propaganda films" after partnering with Saudi interests. The pattern suggests a coordinated effort to reshape the kingdom's international image through culture and sport, even as the execution rate climbs.
Citações Notáveis
Given the subject matter of this film combined with the reality of the rights abuses linked with this war on drugs, it's really disturbing the role that these narratives may play in covering up the reality of these executions.— Joey Shea, Human Rights Watch
The purpose of culture-washing is to legitimise the human rights abuses carried out by the Saudi regime, using the arts to portray a tolerant government when in reality, anyone who offends the men in power risks winding up dead.— Jeed Basyouni, Reprieve
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why would a director of Noyce's stature take this work? He's made serious films about serious subjects.
He said he wanted to work outside his comfort zone and investigate a closed society. But there's a gap between that explanation and what the film actually does—it heroizes the enforcement apparatus of a state executing hundreds of people annually for drug crimes.
Did he have creative control? Could he have made something critical?
He claims Sela never interfered creatively. But he also framed the story as emotional rather than political—a detective hunting a missing child, not an examination of the system itself. That framing matters. It lets you care about individuals without questioning the machinery.
Is this just one director making a choice, or something bigger?
It's part of a pattern. The sovereign wealth fund is bankrolling entertainment and sports globally—LIV Golf, now this film. Human rights researchers call it "culture-washing." The idea is that if you invest enough in culture and sport, the world stops asking hard questions about executions.
But couldn't the film actually be good? Couldn't it tell a true story well?
It might be. But a true story told beautifully can still serve propaganda. The problem isn't whether the film is artistically competent. It's that it exists to make people feel sympathy for the people enforcing a system that kills hundreds annually for drug offences.
What happens now?
The film releases this year. It will be watched, reviewed, distributed. Some will see it as art. Others will see it as exactly what the researchers warned about—a tool for making brutality seem heroic.