Impressive documentary about the fighting spirit and passion of young revolutionaries in Egypt. Despite the fact that real democracy is yet to come, their mindset has profoundly changed. No longer unresisting victims, they stood up for their rights. Kaleidoscopic, intuitive experience from the beating heart of the revolution: Tahrir Square.
From the beginning of the revolution in Egypt in 2011 until the situation in 2013, Egyptian-American filmmaker Jehane Noujaim follows a group of revolutionaries in their struggle for justice and democracy.
It is an illustrious company, with people from different backgrounds and convictions. Such as engaging and combative Ahmed, his friend Magdy – member of the Muslim Brotherhood – and British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla (The Kite Runner), who puts aside his career to support the protests. The film shows how a wave of euphoria sweeps the country after Mubarak’s fall, but also paints an unvarnished portrait of the violence, disillusion and divisions that follow.
The activists’ contagious passion and will to survive, combined with graffiti art, inflammatory protest songs and impressive camera work, make this film into a touching and essential documentary.
The film was part of The Good Pitch Europe in London in 2012 and is on the shortlist for the 2014 Oscars.