Filmmaker Jehane Noujaim set herself an impossible task with "The Square": to tell the story of an ongoing revolution in a feature-length documentary.
There have been at least four versions of the film since January this year — as events continued to unfold, more footage was added. In its different forms, the film has been extremely well-received abroad, winning awards, nominations and critical acclaim
Noujaim used footage shot by herself and others. She follows a handful of activists — most intensively, a charismatic young man called Ahmed Hassan and British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla — and the action almost exclusively consists of protests and clashes on the one hand and urgent conversations in apartments on the other. Sound-bites from two interviews with smug army and police officials are interspersed throughout, as well as the odd snippet from speeches by presidents and their military nemeses: Hosni Mubarak and Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Mohamed Morsi and Abdel Fattah AL-Sisi. There is an emphasis on the importance of video documentation: often we watch characters watching computer screens — showing each other videos of atrocities, or Khalid talking to Skype.
The footage has clearly been filmed skillfully and bravely: the camera runs up with a charge against security forces in the frantic battle on Mohamed Mahmoud Street, it enters field hospitals, it confronts soldiers, it shows military vehicles running people over.
The first half of the film — one presumes the large part of the director's first cut — serves as a good chronology of the street protests and as such is a useful reminder of what happened in what order. It is also not a bad thing to be forced to watch footage that you haven't seen since the events, or couldn't watch at the time.
The characters say things that sum up the mood of each moment. At the beginning, Ahmed, a great central protagonist in that he talks very eloquently using simple language, says "We are all reflections of each other" and "All of Egypt will be like Tahrir." After the sibilance around Mubarak's resignation, the characters soon realize that the regime has not fallen: "Our biggest mistake was to leave the square" they say, and then: "We do trust the army, but "
Protests start against military rule. We relive the shock of realizing for the first time that "the police and the army are standing together!" as someone shouts. Ramy Essam, a singer who also has a strong presence at the beginning of the film, is one of those arrested by the military and tortured in the Egyptian Museum. While the scenes of Essam immediately following his torture are extremely powerful, Noujaim does' t pull too much on our heartstrings. (The "virginity tests" happening at the same place and time are not mentioned.)
At this point we see the old electrocution scars of the film's Islamist character, an often skeptical Muslim Brotherhood member called Magdy Ashour, from his times in prison under Mubarak. His young daughter talks about the violent arrests that used to take place at their house.
Then the film shows the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood. It's the first time we see praying in "The Square." Chants for an Islamic state. Magdy says, "Some Brotherhood leaders make deals with the army." Ahmed says, " The Brotherhood ruined the sit-in." People argue about whether the country is ready for elections.
Then there is Maspero, October 2011. The footage of the massacre is very clear, as is the footage of squashed faces of dead people deliberately run over by military vehicles, as is the footage of Mina Danial's shocked parents, his elderly father looking vacant, lost, unbelieving. It is awful. Hospitals refusing to stamp autopsies. Amid scenes of candles and tears, there is a shot of a military man half-smiling, saying "Who started attacking first?"
The following month, it's the Mohamed Mahmoud clashes. Magdy joins against Brotherhood orders. Scenes of the violence and scenes of Ahmed, looking white and shaky for the first time, talking to the camera: " People are falling one by one just because they're saying 'Down with military rule'," he says. "Too many bullets I'm going to explode." Soon enough he's hit in the head, the camera blacks out, we're in a field hospital.
A laughing army official: "The army made the revolution. You kids know nothing."
So far, so good: not a new perspective on the events, but a fairly gripping and clear narrative of what was happening on the streets of downtown Cairo in the first year of the revolution.
But as things get more complicated, the film simplifies more and there is less footage and less information. We rush through Morsi's election, through his outrageous constitutional amendments, through the presidential palace protests.
Throughout, there are close-ups of graffiti being made, paint dripping on shoes to the sound of romantic music.
Maintaining this air of romance around the square is outdated, if not completely false. The hopeful friendship of Magdy and Ahmed has surely not been able to survive the Rabea massacre. Alongside the abrupt ending, this insistence on romance and unity undermines the strong criticisms of military rule in the first half of the film.
The idea of keeping a film alive and changing as times change is exciting and full of potential, but it would have to lose its clear narrative, reflect the complications and chaos of the present as it moves forward. The film in question here is very well-crafted, especially the beginning. But in the end, perhaps it was overambitious and not quite radical, or even revolutionary, enough.
well done Jehane 9\10 !
There have been at least four versions of the film since January this year — as events continued to unfold, more footage was added. In its different forms, the film has been extremely well-received abroad, winning awards, nominations and critical acclaim
Noujaim used footage shot by herself and others. She follows a handful of activists — most intensively, a charismatic young man called Ahmed Hassan and British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla — and the action almost exclusively consists of protests and clashes on the one hand and urgent conversations in apartments on the other. Sound-bites from two interviews with smug army and police officials are interspersed throughout, as well as the odd snippet from speeches by presidents and their military nemeses: Hosni Mubarak and Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Mohamed Morsi and Abdel Fattah AL-Sisi. There is an emphasis on the importance of video documentation: often we watch characters watching computer screens — showing each other videos of atrocities, or Khalid talking to Skype.
The footage has clearly been filmed skillfully and bravely: the camera runs up with a charge against security forces in the frantic battle on Mohamed Mahmoud Street, it enters field hospitals, it confronts soldiers, it shows military vehicles running people over.
The first half of the film — one presumes the large part of the director's first cut — serves as a good chronology of the street protests and as such is a useful reminder of what happened in what order. It is also not a bad thing to be forced to watch footage that you haven't seen since the events, or couldn't watch at the time.
The characters say things that sum up the mood of each moment. At the beginning, Ahmed, a great central protagonist in that he talks very eloquently using simple language, says "We are all reflections of each other" and "All of Egypt will be like Tahrir." After the sibilance around Mubarak's resignation, the characters soon realize that the regime has not fallen: "Our biggest mistake was to leave the square" they say, and then: "We do trust the army, but "
Protests start against military rule. We relive the shock of realizing for the first time that "the police and the army are standing together!" as someone shouts. Ramy Essam, a singer who also has a strong presence at the beginning of the film, is one of those arrested by the military and tortured in the Egyptian Museum. While the scenes of Essam immediately following his torture are extremely powerful, Noujaim does' t pull too much on our heartstrings. (The "virginity tests" happening at the same place and time are not mentioned.)
At this point we see the old electrocution scars of the film's Islamist character, an often skeptical Muslim Brotherhood member called Magdy Ashour, from his times in prison under Mubarak. His young daughter talks about the violent arrests that used to take place at their house.
Then the film shows the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood. It's the first time we see praying in "The Square." Chants for an Islamic state. Magdy says, "Some Brotherhood leaders make deals with the army." Ahmed says, " The Brotherhood ruined the sit-in." People argue about whether the country is ready for elections.
Then there is Maspero, October 2011. The footage of the massacre is very clear, as is the footage of squashed faces of dead people deliberately run over by military vehicles, as is the footage of Mina Danial's shocked parents, his elderly father looking vacant, lost, unbelieving. It is awful. Hospitals refusing to stamp autopsies. Amid scenes of candles and tears, there is a shot of a military man half-smiling, saying "Who started attacking first?"
The following month, it's the Mohamed Mahmoud clashes. Magdy joins against Brotherhood orders. Scenes of the violence and scenes of Ahmed, looking white and shaky for the first time, talking to the camera: " People are falling one by one just because they're saying 'Down with military rule'," he says. "Too many bullets I'm going to explode." Soon enough he's hit in the head, the camera blacks out, we're in a field hospital.
A laughing army official: "The army made the revolution. You kids know nothing."
So far, so good: not a new perspective on the events, but a fairly gripping and clear narrative of what was happening on the streets of downtown Cairo in the first year of the revolution.
But as things get more complicated, the film simplifies more and there is less footage and less information. We rush through Morsi's election, through his outrageous constitutional amendments, through the presidential palace protests.
Throughout, there are close-ups of graffiti being made, paint dripping on shoes to the sound of romantic music.
Maintaining this air of romance around the square is outdated, if not completely false. The hopeful friendship of Magdy and Ahmed has surely not been able to survive the Rabea massacre. Alongside the abrupt ending, this insistence on romance and unity undermines the strong criticisms of military rule in the first half of the film.
The idea of keeping a film alive and changing as times change is exciting and full of potential, but it would have to lose its clear narrative, reflect the complications and chaos of the present as it moves forward. The film in question here is very well-crafted, especially the beginning. But in the end, perhaps it was overambitious and not quite radical, or even revolutionary, enough.
well done Jehane 9\10 !