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Oscar-nominated documentary screened on campus

Approximately 25 students and faculty attended an on-campus screening Tuesday night of “The Square,” an Oscar nominated documentary about the Egyptian Revolution in 2011.

Jehane Noujaim, an Egyptian-American director known for her documentary “Control Room,” directed the film.

Through the eyes of the cast, the documentary chronologically follows the events that led to Egyptians flooding the streets of Cairo and occupying Tahrir Square as part of the Arab Spring movement.

The cast includes Khalid Abdalla, a British-Egyptian actor who starred in “The Kite Runner,” Magdy Ashour, a father and member of the Muslim Brotherhood and Ahmed Hassan, a street revolutionary.

“I think this film is quite a powerful film,” said Ziad Abu-Rish, who led the discussion at the film screening. “Massive popular uprisings are a rare and difficult occurrence.”

Abu-Rish is also the co-editor of “The Dawn of the Arab Uprisings.”

The film captures the violent and sometimes fatal opposition faced by the revolutionaries through the lenses of their cameras, which then become their weapon against injustice.

“The driving force of the revolution is the will of the people,” Abu-Rish said. “It’s a beautiful message; the idea of having a collective conscience. The driving force to bring change defies the divisions of social stigmas.”

As the events unfold and Hosni Mubarak, former president of Egypt resigns, it appears the Egyptians have reclaimed their freedom, but soon realize nothing had changed. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces that assumed control of the nation did not implement any substantial reforms so the revolutionaries returned to the streets.

“If you look at the reforms that happened, you see that there is none,” Abu-Rish said. “When Mubarak fell, that is all that happened; the regime and structure stayed in place.”

The film also captures the divisions that occur between the revolutionaries and the Muslim Brotherhood, a major political organization present in the film.

When presidential elections were held, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood won, which the film depicted creating tension. Revolutionaries felt betrayed because they thought the brotherhood made a deal with the government, and they flooded the streets yet again.

In the end, Morsi resigned, but the revolutionaries in the film realized the changes they had intended to occur never took place. Hassan remarks, “the revolutionaries’ biggest victory is that kids can now play protest.”

“Other than the imprisonment of Mubarak, nothing really happens,” said Abu-Rish. “No one was really tried for their crimes, there is no economic reform, and the secret police continues their extermination campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood.”

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