(Egypt/USA, 108 min.)
Dir. Jehane Noujaim
Feat. Ahmed Hassan, Khalid Abdalla, Dina Abdulla, Magdy
Abomazen, Aida Elkashef,
“As long as there is a camera, the revolution will
continue,” says Ahmed Hassan, the chief revolutionary through whom the audience
sees the citizen revolution in Jehane Noujaim’s documentary The Square. The Square, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary
Feature after nabbing the People’s Choice Award for Documentary at last year’s
Toronto International Film Festival, is documentary filmmaking in top form. Ahmed
champions the importance of the camera because he and his fellow revolutionaries
including actor Khalid Abdalla of The
Kite Runner fame, know that it is up to the citizens fighting for change to
tell the story. The revolution sees the ousting of both Egyptian President
Hosni Murubak and his successor Mohamed Morsi, but the citizens at the front
lines keep a diary of the events as they unfold so that those responsible can
be held accountable when order is restored.
The Square is digital democracy at its finest.
The film’s activist stance is matched by its compelling, character-driven pull and its involving thrust into the front lines of the story. The film lets the citizens at the thick of the revolutionary occupation of Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt in 2011 tell the story from a perspective that was largely glossed over in media coverage of this notable chapter of contemporary history. The Square thus largely succeeds as a piece of cinematic democracy as it provides first-hand accounts of the violence and aggressive tactics that were enforced upon civilians to curb their protest.
The Square covers
the events adequately within the frame of 108 minutes. (This engrossing film
moves quickly.) Noujaim grants the story enough context by letting the
revolutionaries speak to their cause, rather than by relying upon archival
footage and the like to create a mere factual summary. The Square is more a story about creating history than it is an
account of it.
Some images of The
Square are appropriately blunt and harrowing. Noujaim, however, carefully
balances the footage and honours both the fallen revolutionaries and those
continuing the fight. Footage of peaceful protests is matched with images of
riotous violence. News excerpts show Egyptian politicians legitimizing the
violence and saying that the military simply responded with necessary force,
but the eyewitnesses’ footage tells a different story. The Square is a product of how digital filmmaking has
revolutionized documentary form, for it essentially allows any willing participant
in the revolution at Tahrir Square to be cinematographer. The camera, in turn,
is an agent of democracy and activism itself, for it gives the revolutionaries
a voice with a global reach. The Square
shows the revolutionaries countering narratives of the mythmaking media with
first hand footage of the events in the square.
The intermingling of the personal and the political also
allows The Square to explore the
complexly interconnected relationship between religion and state in Egypt, as
the account notes how the revolutionaries’ struggled clashed with that of the
Muslim Brotherhood, especially when Morsi was elected into power following
Murubak’s departure. The film includes Magdy Abomazen, a revolutionary and
devotee of the Muslim Brotherhood, as one of its chief witnesses to history.
Magdy, however, changes sides as the revolution progresses and takes on a
religious element. The question of religion raises levels of sensitivity, yet The Square carefully elides
confrontation with religious values themselves; rather, Noujaim observes how
religion complicates and obfuscates matters as lines are drawn between allies and
fundamentalism warps the revolution in the eye of the media. The participatory
nature of The Square grants it
objectivity as many contributors have their own voice and point of view from
behind the camera.
The film is very much a worthy companion piece to last year’s
exemplary activist doc We Are Wisconsin (one of my picks for the best films of 2012), which chronicled the occupation of the Capitol Building of Madison,
Wisconsin in the face of Governor Scott Walker’s suggested reform. Like Wisconsin, The Square has the energy and conviction of a film created in the throes
of history as it happens. It’s a collaborative call for democratic freedom and
a collective fight for human rights. It’s a film of the moment made in the
moment, and its relevance couldn’t be felt more clearly.
The Square is harrowing
and convincing thanks not only to the authenticity of the images captured by
the revolutionaries, but also for the conviction and perseverance that the
subjects bring to their struggle. The film follows the revolutionaries through
two years of revolution and it leaves the revolution not far from where it
began. Little has changed, as Ahmed and his peers note that corruption and
violence is more prevalent than ever and that the revolution simply replaced
one crooked President with another.
There is, however, a note of optimism that rings throughout
the film. It’s apparent in the evocative graffiti and street art that one
glimpses throughout the film. The images appear with more colours and more
passion, and more importantly, they appear in greater frequency as the
revolution evolves. The art, matched with the fervent voices that narrate the
story, show a spirit that cannot be broken. The
Square shows that the revolution is ongoing and it invites more voices to
join the fight.
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
The Square is now available on Netflix and in select theatres.
