The Square chronicles the experiences of a small group of young protestors in Cairo during the revolution in Tahrir Square. Because the film doesn't begin chronicling the events in the square until after Mubarek, the country's former president, steps down, some of the more important details about the origins of the revolution are lost. Regardless, The Square is a compelling film focusing solely on the events occuring in Tahrir Square. The protestors that comprise the film are from a variety of backgrounds, all wanting to change Egypt for the better and create a new future for their country.
The group is ridiculously media savvy, creating and posting videos to YouTube from footage gathered from handheld cameras, edited together with FinalCut Pro, and utilizing social media to its best advantage. They create a series of checkpoints into Tahrir Square as civilians and search everyone for weaponry. Some of the footage of the army, the group who gained power after Mubarek stepped down, is bloody and stomach-churning, but the dedication to the revolution shown by the protestors is inspiring.
Since the film was literally only four days old at its premiere, it didn't even have ending credits. The subtitles are teeming with enough typos and grammatical mistakes to make me cringe, but even that isn't even to undermine the purpose of this film. Director Jehane Nouljaim doesn't waste any time on delving into the backstories of any of the protestors shown in the film; she gets straight to the business of presenting the conditions and stories of Tahrir Square. It probably helps if you have some basic knowledge of the Egpytian revolution, but it's certainly not required to be able to watch and understand where these protestors are coming from. They are clearly devoted to bringing change to Egypt, and they won't be silenced.
