Clevercell Very disappointing...

PodBill Just what I expected

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Alex Deleon Viewed at Los Angeles Preview, Dec. 2013: "The Square" (Al Meidan). a new documentary thriller straight from the barricades in Cairo, has received the Best Documentary of the year award and has turned out to be one of the hottest film events of the tail end of calendar year 2013. PHOTO: Ahmad Hassan, young protester rides atop a triumphant crowd in Tehrir Square"The Square" (Tehrir Square in Cairo, scene of all the major Egyptian protest demonstrations of the past two years) a two hour long documentary on the Nightmarish 'Arab Spring' in Egypt, is an astounding personal summary of the events in Egypt from the fall of the Mubarak dictatorship in early 2011 to the rise and fall of the Moslem Brotherhood under "legally elected" Islamist president Morsi just a few months ago.Intrepid female director, Jehane Noujaim, an American Egyptian filmmaker went to Cairo in January 2011 to witness the historical events taking place in her home town with no such ambitious film project yet in mind ..The reality on the ground in front of her eyes in the very neighborhood where she grew up — with cataclysmic political changes already underway — prompted her to set up a team to record these unfolding events in proper professional style. She and her team stayed with the ongoing insurrection for two years, through thick and thin, focusing on the personalities of three central impromptu revolutionaries, while placing themselves directly in the line of fire.What emerges is a you-are-there documentary that is more cinema vérité than classical documentary — like news flashes from the front lines with a Hollywood thriller plot line to boot.Basically she followed three regular Tehrir protesters around, both on the street during life- threatening situations, and off the street in private interviews reflecting on the events in progress. One, Ahmed Hassan simply speaks straight from the shoulder with no pretensions whatsoever. Ahmed is an average guy who is convinced that the time for the common people to regain their dignity after decades of humiliation and oppression under Mubarak has finally come. He just happens to have the disarming charm and charisma of a Leonardo Di Caprio.Khalid Abdallah is a professional British actor of Egyptian background with a Cambridge degree. In 2006 he played the leader of the Arab hijackers in Paul Greengrass's 9/11 drama "Flight 93″. In Jehane's Square he plays himself — an ordinary Egyptian with a conscience crying out for democracy. Khalid takes a more intellectual view than the others but is every bit as committed and willing to put his body on the line. His father back in England is also a longtime advocate of democracy for Egypt. We see Khalid talking to his father via SKYPE in UK to keep him abreast of happenings on the front line in the Square.The battle lines swing back and forth. After Mubarak is toppled an interim military junta takes over. Finally the Junta agrees to hold "free elections"' however, as Hassan points out with surprising political savvy, the democratic minded opposition in The Square has no cohesive structure, so the choice becomes one between the fundamentalist minded Moslem Brotherhood, or a continuation of Mubarak style Military rule — in other words not much of a choice at all for the democracy minded activists who represent the bulk of the Egyptian populace.The Botherhood — the "Akhwan" — win by a slim majority and Morsi takes over — as a "legally elected" president. At first even Washington supports him, but it soon becomes clear that Morsi wants to install an Islamic Dictatorship. Watching Morsi attempting to assume dictatoriaĺ powers on television Ahmed Hassan remarks wryly, "He's digging his own grave" — and then leads another charge into The Square. This time Hassan is hit by live ammo and hospitalized, but he recovers quickly and the Moslem Brotherhood regime is also toppled. But what is the new alternative?The third central figure is Magdy, a personal friend of secular Ahmed but a committed Moslem Brotherhood believer. As events progress we witness his final disappointment and disillusion with the brotherhood in spite of his deep religious feelings. His own son is now an active demonstrator against Brotherhood oppression. At the end of the film, completed just two months ago, the military is back in the drivers seat and the nation is in limbo. In a final sequence the three main figures agree that the opposition is too unstructured and that what is needed is a new constitution — and a new consciousness — but this will take time to work out.As the year 2014 opens the situation in Egypt is still up in the air with the military cracking down severely, much as was the case under Mubarak. The question now is what is worse?– the military or the Islamists — and will democracy in some form still have a chance?On very limited release in November 2013 this amazing film was seen by almost nobody because NETFLIX who own the rights, allotted Zero publicity budget. However, The power of Jehane Noujaim's film is such that, if it gets an Oscar in March on top of the Best Documentary distinction already earned it may become an international cause celèbre and may then reach enough people to make a real difference on the ground — not only in Egypt but elsewhere as well. In any case this is a film absolutely not to miss simply as a cinematic adventure that is sure to become a landmark if and when the final chapter of the Arab Spring is ever written.

Mohamed Ali (mohamedalibusiness1) Most importantly, "The Square" brings cohesion and clarity to the story of Egypt's ongoing revolution since the Arab Spring that began nearly 4 years ago today. The film is structured into chapters of each power- shifting protest that has made its way into western media over the past few years, and we follow a few revolutionaries to get their perspectives on the reasons of each protest movement and their thoughts on the aftermath. Their words are as perceptive and inspirational as the footage shown of their fellow Egyptians, and by the end this documentary makes a cautionary and exciting case for both the future of Egypt and of ours as a global community. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, "You will never be what you ought to be until they are what they ought to be."

Joseph Pezzuto "The leaders play on top. The people pay the price for everything. The people always pay the price." To commemorate the one-year anniversary of the political uprising and tragic bloodshed of an African nation demanding a justified revolution, this review will cover the inspirational, immersive and intense film known as 'Al-Midan' (The Square). However, did this documentary exceed in truly capturing the essence of a nation in one of its most dire eras? Let's take a look.Directed by Jehane Noujaim (Control Room), this 2013 Egyptian-American documentary depicts the ongoing roller-coaster ride of tumultuous political affairs, deriving from its roots back in 2011 in Tehrir Square to the summer of 2013. Casting its ballot of a budget at only $1.5 million, the unfortunate outcome was a return only slightly more than a tenth of that at the box office. However, the film did receive a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 86th Academy Awards and was the first film through Kickstarter (crowd-sourced) to do so. That may have been thanks to the five editors who worked on the film as well, not to mention the five "additional editors" and six assistant editors mentioned in the end credits, but who's counting? The Revolution in Egypt has been a continuing political drama over the past two and a half years. For most people, the news will only provide a glimpse of one of the bloodiest political battles, an election and a million man march. The handful of characters we do meet at the start of the uprising revolution discuss covering their own footage with cameras, as the news will only show so much. These maneuvers and a number of YouTube videos are our main characters' only windows of the outside world around them gone hellishly awry; ravenous for rightful restitution amidst streets slathered with rioters, tanks and tear gas. The characters we are introduced to are only a fraction of the tens of hundreds of thousands fighting for their voices to be heard in claiming their rights, including actor Khalid Abdalla (United 93) during the reign of the corrupt Muslim Brotherhood and the leering presence of the threatening Revolutionary. At the beginning of the film, we witness the deposal of the fourth president, Hosni Mubarak, after his nearly two-decade long term. Now, political unrest has arisen and the people demand a new leader. When President Mohamed Morsi wins the election as the fifth president of Egypt, his abrupt term is halted after he grants himself unlimited powers on the pretext that he will "protect" the nation from the Mubarak-era power structure. He also gives himself the power to legislate without judicial oversight or review of his acts. In late November, he issues an Islamist-backed draft constitution and calls for a referendum, an act that his opponents call an "Islamist coup". These issues, along with complaints of prosecutions of journalists and attacks on nonviolent demonstrators, brings hundreds of thousands of protesters to the streets in the 2012 Egyptian protests. It is these actions that erupt the nation into frenzy, with protesters by the millions calling for the resignation of Morsi. He is later tried for charges of incitement of murder and violence, along with espionage. As of now, the nation is hopefully awaiting a new leader who will indefinitely bring about peace and rest once again to the nation of Egypt.'The Square' indeed does this daring documentary justice in capturing the raw, uncut footage and bringing it to vivid life not only as a picture of grueling chaos but also as an art form. Like the cuts to the mural of the wall in the film being painted every now and then, so too are the voices of the people in Tehrir Square in all of their varying colors. Many voices, one plea. Many colors, one portrait. Together the people forget their differences and stand as one by the thousands upon thousands to form their own "wall" that stands against the powers polluting their precious homeland. No matter how many "bricks" are lost from their wall, the people are all the stronger in their fight. The shots of a man's stretched, distorted face upon it being run over from a panzer or a young man assassinated for attending the protest without informing his parents first are daunting and grotesque, but they emphasize the desperation of a people seeking freedom. Even one of our main characters, Ahmed Hassan, gets a gash in his head from some rocks thrown at him. Some up-close shots in the film show the paint running in the heat down the wall, paralleling the people in the street sacrificing their blood for a dream they so desperately believe in. With each stroke of a brush, they too are painting the way on a path toward a democratic society and a brighter future. Like the mural, though unfinished, the revolution is a process, and getting there will be a long journey.Astonishingly intimate, courageous, complex and relentlessly gripping, Noujaim succeeds in risking a few years of her life to chronicle a giant mark in world history that is shown as deeply upsetting as it is yet ultimately hopeful to the viewer amidst an ever-shifting political culture. The two-year look at history in less than two hours is hard to digest at first but satisfactorily sums up a truly complicated and twisted predicament that one can only applaud afterward.

jdesando Himself - Revolutionary: "We're not looking for a leader as much as we're looking for a conscience . . . . If we are able to create this conscience within the society, we'll be able to find a good president."And so a revolution goes—not a coherent plan but a passion for democratic equality and justice. The Square squarely hits the historical details about the people's revolution in Egypt in Cairo's Tahrir Square from 2011-2013.As the Egyptian proletariat protest and dethrone President Hosni Mubarak, remove the military, and install Mohamed Morsi, nothing is as they wanted it. Each time, even now, produces another repressive regime while the people hope for freedom.Acclaimed director Jehane Noujaim (Sundance award for Startup.com) consistently shows the protesters' point of view, in a remarkably consistent tone that is neither preachy nor emotionally removed. She reveals the frustration of the revolutionaries, who willingly give their lives for their ideals but still end up imprisoned by the ruling elite, whom the revolutionaries were instrumental in installing.Noujaim does not make a judgment; rather she shows the complexities of the revolutionaries' motives and strategies without predicting the future. The doc puts in perspective the four major components: Muslim Brotherhood, ruling parties, military, and commoners, and emphasizing the irony of this review's opening quote. While seeking a conscience, Egyptians seem to miss the importance of a charismatic leader (Che Guevera? Abraham Lincoln? MLK? See above quote).Their quest for "conscience" exposes the weakness of the doc as well: Missing a compelling protagonist in a revolution and a documentary leads to a tedious repetition of events without the umbrella of a defining leader with an incendiary philosophy. But that imperfection leads to a realistic depiction of revolution, whose ideals Westerners can easily identify with:Himself - Revolutionary: "The leaders play on top. The people pay the price for everything. The people always pay the price."