Death of a Princess
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Death of a Princess is a 1979 docudrama about a young Saudi princess and her lover who had been publicly executed for adultery, based on the true story of Princess Misha'al. A critically acclaimed film, it originally caused a great deal of controversy when it first was scheduled to appear in the late seventies.
The film was based on numerous interviews by journalist Antony Thomas, who upon first hearing the story grew passionately curious about its veracity, soon drawing upon contacts in the Arab world for their insights and opinions. Because of the candid and sometimes critical nature of the interviews, the identities of the interviewees were obscured, and the actors chosen to replace them were based only loosely on their subjects.
Death of a Princess depicts Thomas' focus on "the Princess" as her story became his vehicle through which important parts of Muslim culture was revealed, showing facets of Islamic tradition, custom, society, gender and social roles, sexuality, politics, myth, and identity. In a retrospective interview for the Frontline rebroadcast, Thomas described his reasons for making the film:
"I set off to investigate this story with the idea of doing it as a drama, and gradually I realized that something completely different was developing. Where I traveled through the Arab world, the story was celebrated. Everyone had their own version of that story, all very, very different. ...Whoever I spoke to —whether they were Palestinians, whether they were conservative Saudis, whether they were radicals —they attached themselves to this princess. She'd become a myth. And they identified with her, and they kind of co-opted her to their cause. People were discussing things with me about their private lives, about their sexual feelings, about their political frustrations, that they'd never discussed with me before. ... Somehow this princess was sort of like a catalyst. And after thinking about it seriously, I thought, my gosh, this is perhaps an even more interesting story to tell."
In the late 1970s, the US government received enormous political pressure from Saudi Arabia to censor its broadcast, and after some stalling it was eventually broadcast by the PBS World programme in 1980. It was rebroadcast by its successor program Frontline in April 2005 for its 25th anniversary, under limited terms described in its original contract. Because of copyright and issues with royalties, it is not available for Internet viewing through PBS.
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