The Square (DVD)

Very interesting view of the events of the Egyptian revolution. It helped to place them in context for me as I was unable to follow the rather garbled news reports at the time.This is a great documentary and I have only refrained from giving it five stars because I did not like the use of the child as I suspect he was placed in the film rather than being a bystander. He does not have anything to contribute except symbolically and I would rather he had been left out.But the other 99% of the documentary is very good.

The Struggles of the Egyptians during the rebellion against the repressive regime, largely following on e man who used his camera to record the events. Incisive filming at it best.

Too long.

Excellent, must watch

excellent movie.

Excellent film!

I can't believe this film is so little known as to have no reviews. Although I never heard of it until a few months ago when it was recommended to me.It is a street level documentary which starts in spring 2011 when someone had the bright idea of filming three of the protesters in Tahrir Square, and followed through until the Military coup two and a half years later and the suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood.It is not an intellectual film but the view of the protestors, as I understood it, was that the Muslim Brotherhood made a deal with the army around the time the army got rid of Mubarak, and there is an suggestion that the army played divide and rule by bigging up the Brotherhood, knowing it would split the protestors if they did. Of course this worked and Morsi's government being so blinkered was always going to fail, enabling the army to take over again.All I can say is that this film makes this clear to me where as two years of scanning the mainstream press in the UK never did.Very moving film, and I can't think of any other film which offers such a sustained view of an attempted revolution, or at least full scale revolt.

It’s difficult to overpraise this acclaimed documentary film about the popular revolution in Egypt following the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Director Jehane Noujaim’s film is an outstanding piece of work deploying first-class filming/editing which splices together the stories of three major (Ahmed Hassan, Magdy Ashour & Khaled Abdalla) and several minor characters all committed to the revolution. Each has differing ideals and motivations, but as they agree to disagree they unite as campaigners - sometimes at great personal risk - for political change in Egypt.‘The Square’ of the title is Tahir Square in Cairo, the centre of the action where thousands camped out for months to bring about the revolution. We witness the discussions and arguments of the protagonists as the revolution progresses over 24 months through phases, from the euphoria of Mubarak being forced from office to realization that the Moslem Brotherhood’s subsequent government is almost as oppressive as what it replaces, to seizure of control by the Army and a realization that attaining democracy and freedoms will be a long process with many false dawns. The viewer is left deeply impressed by the unquenchable fire of hope for the future which drives these campaigners: all these principled people want is a governmental system where their voices may be heard, which so many of us in ‘the west’ take for granted. These people are ultimately optimists and despite their privations, have no wish to leave Egypt for an easier life in the west. They want to stay and change their society for the good.‘The Square’ won multiple awards and makes riveting viewing at every level. Most of the film’s dialog is in Arabic subtitled in English, though one of the protesters was educated in England so is a fluent and eloquent English speaker.Summary: informative, intelligent, entertaining, inspiring, excellent.