Title: Tahrir

Director: Stefano Savona

At the beginning of 2011, a small protest gathered in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt with the hopes to oust President Hosni Mubarak out of office. The unemployment rate and living conditions in Egypt were on the decline and in contrast, the social awareness and anger inside of Egyptians were on the upswing. This small group became larger and larger, gathering for a call to the people using social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Hundreds become thousands and soon enough, those thousands turned into one million people, all gathered together for one goal. This protest was at first peaceful and soon turned violent as Mubarak’s army turned on the people it swore to protect. This protest lasted 17 days in Tahrir Square until Mubarak eventually resigned the office and left Egypt.

It’s complete astounding the filmmaker Stefano Savona was in the middle of the confusion, pain and, eventual, excitement of this 17 day long protest, and what is captured is clearly breathtaking and inspiring. The acts of every day working class people fed up with the status quo, to actions and not arms to create a social revolution is one to see. The film starts on the 6th day of the January 25th protest, we are thrown into this world, following a man wandering around, perhaps looking for his family. His confusion is our confusion, Savona, smartly, doesn’t follow this man for the duration of the film but follows many people in trying to make sense of what’s going on.

There is no clear entry into this film as there is no clear entry into the protest, the camera lingers and captures the faces of the people. For the most part it’s a hard struggle, their faces look grim, not knowing how long this protest will last and perhaps sooner or later it will end, or reality will kick in and people will soon leave for their jobs. But the reality is, these people don’t have jobs to go to, they don’t have ways to make money, they have family and loved ones to provide for, and that is the problem. We can see moments when frustration turns violent when rocks are being thrown (on both ends) and the threat of gunfire lingers in the air. Strangely, we don’t know who threw the first rock, but more importantly, a war broke out.

This film is so rich with imagery not covered by mainstream or even independent media as US policy is brought into question, whether to side with President Mubarak or the people’s struggle for freedom, which is the example of how the US was founded. As President Mubarak makes a speech addressing the protestors, that he will not leave office and will only do so when the next election comes up, the crowd becomes more and more frustrated with the way the protest is happening.

What this film boils down to, is capturing an important moment in, not only Egyptian or Middle Eastern history, but just in human history. It’s truly inspiring to watch a movement grow into one singular voice. Even as a member of the audience, you can’t help but not feel energized by the people as the march to freedom. This is a very important film and should be seen by everyone, it should be taught in our classrooms and be discussed by everyone, no matter what your personal politics or religious beliefs lie. The film ends on a sour note, former President Mubarak has resigned and the people disperse back to their lives, but the question the film ends on is “what’s next?”. Is it enough for this man to resign or is there something more? The protestors can’t answer that and neither can the audience. I guess it’s to show that this struggle for freedom isn’t over because one man is out of office and more importantly, it continues with you.

Technical: A-

Story: A+

Overall: A

“Tahrir” is screening as part of the New York Film Festival on Oct 2nd and Oct 4th.

by @Rudie_Obias