THE COURAGE
TO STAY SILENT
“Freedom of expression is the core value of existence. Without it, you could lose everything else.”
“Ahmed Mansoor was literally the last human rights activist in the country”
“Oppression is innovative”
“We’re all connected to each other, and in a way what happens to Ahmed impacts what happens to all of us”
“Why can’t we know how the wealth of this country is distributed, why don’t we have a monitoring tool for that?”
“Our city’s being sold out from under our feet and its streets are filling with the bodies of people who have no place! Do you see them?”
Have Courage
The Story
What links the security of your smartphone, the disappearance of an innocent citizen for a tweet, and the sudden rise of Manchester City Football Club? This film explores the United Arab Emirates as a gleaming laboratory of high-tech progress and global investment, shadowed by authoritarian control. Through the story of Ahmed Mansoor—engineer, poet, and human rights advocate—this film reveals how visions of digital futures coexist with surveillance, info wars, and silenced dissent. Tracing flows of capital, disinformation campaigns and the disempowerment of citizens, the film exposes how Mansoor’s persecution – and the hacking of his iPhone – signals a broader threat to privacy, freedom, and citizens everywhere.
Explore the investigation
Business deals with authoritarian regimes are often shrouded in secrecy and escape the kind of accountability required in democratic context. On camera and online researchers share their forensic work around controversial sales of public land, dual-use technologies and ultimately of the very idea of human rights.