by Nagat Ali (translated by Gretchen McCullough)
The film “The Midan” is one of the most famous documentary films about the “continuing Egyptian revolution” by the Egyptian-American director, Jihan Naguim, winning a number of international prizes and recently nominated for an Oscar.
The film presents mainly the narratives of three characters from different cultural backgrounds who participated in the Egyptian Revolution. They are: Ahmad Hassan, a young man from a poorer family in his mid-twenties; Khaled Abdullah, a British-Egyptian actor in his mid-thirties who returned to Egypt to participate in the Egyptian Revolution, an example of the link between activists and the international media. But the third person, Magdi Ashour, in his mid-forties, is one of the members of the Muslim Brotherhood who was sent to prison and tortured during Mubarak’s regime. He felt jealous and sad because of the Brotherhood’s position in the Egyptian Revolution and their behavior after Mubarak’s departure and their ascension to power.
“Maybe the film focused on the three characters in the Revolution and Midan Tahrir, but it was removed from events in the Square and bigger events, like the protests in Suez and Alexandria at the beginning of the revolution. The Egyptian state media incited violence against protestors, describing the Revolution as an American/Iranian/Qatarian/Israeli conspiracy and the protestors in the Square as agents, paid with Kentucky Fried Chicken meals and dollars. The youth in the Square joked about this in the Square, “Well, the Egyptian Revolution was unified by Iran, the enemy of Israel and America.
The film attempts to present the vision of the revolution in a balanced way, by showing the relationship of the former military council in the Revolution and how it was clear the way the Generals betrayed the revolution and tried to abort it. But the film suffers from compression and at the same time, the omission of important events…
Kee reading the story on Yalla Italia
