Since the early 2011 protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, scenes of huge Egyptian demonstrations violently broken up by the authorities seem constant. That may be why the most powerful moments in Jehane Noujaim’s documentary show people reflecting, literally binding wounds and trying to regroup.
Noujaim (the Egyptian-American director of “Control Room,” about Al Jazeera) focuses on Ahmed Hassan, a fiery idealist often hoarse from shouting; Khalid Abdalla, an actor who starred in “The Kite Runner” but returned to Egypt to agitate for democracy; and Magdy Ashour, a Muslim Brotherhood member who takes part in the protests in defiance of his group’s politics.
The movie stays on the secular liberals’ side, all the way through this summer’s ouster of the Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi. Some key points, it must be said, get glossed over: for instance, that the election that installed Morsi as president was boycotted by many liberals.
(The closest the film gets to arguing that issue is a marvelous bit when Abdalla tells a woman that Egypt isn’t ready for elections, an idea she scorns in no uncertain terms.)
“The Square” isn’t a nuanced or complete view of Egyptian politics, but it’s an enthralling view of fervent reformists, willing to go back to Tahrir as often as it takes.