The Dark Reality Behind Saudi Arabia’s Utopian Dreams (Published 2021)
Mohammed bin Salman’s absurd plan for the Line — a 106-mile long city with no cars and no roads — comes with a grisly human price.
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/28/magazine/saudi-arabia-neom-the-line.html
The film’s final words, spoken as a multicultural parade of faces flickers across the screen, are deliciously preposterous: “A home to all of us — welcome to the Line.” As I heard it, I couldn’t help wondering about the woman who spoke those words. Would she even consider moving to a remote desert city, to be subject to 24/7 surveillance and the whims of a murderous prince? My guess is that she did what so many others who work for the Saudis have done: spoke her lines, picked up the check and fled.