Movies being produced one after another using Egytian revolution as material

It’s not new that Egypt had its revolution –it’s still not decided whether we can say it ended or not- but it was one. And like all revolutions, Cinema has to show it in its own way, with all of its pros and cons. Of course, many movies have been made dealing with the revolution since last year till now. Movies about bad police officers, innocent people getting into prison, certain political movements and of course the previous regime, have all been made.

But all these movies tried desperately to show how the spark of the revolution broke out, that they missed many vital details in their movies; that the final product was a really poor movie which didn’t even do well in the box office.

Even though the Egyptian revolution lasted about 18 days, it had so many memorable events, tragic ones. It could easily be a material for an epic movie with some humane twists. But directors and writers didn’t take time to see the “big picture” as it seems.

Scene from that doomed day, a man riding his camel attacking the protestors.

One of these movies I’m talking about is “After the Battle”; it’s about the aftermath of an important day in the history of the Egyptian revolution, The Battle of the Camels, which occurred on February 2, 2011. People riding horses and camels, attacked the protesters in Tahrir Square, it turned out later that these attackers were people hired by some high profile officials from the old regime.

However, the movie is drifting in another way, that by the end I actually forgot that it was talking about the Battle of the camels.

The movie "After the Battle" poster

The movie talks about Reem, a woman who by chance encounters Mahmoud, one of the riders who were told to go to Tahrir square on their horses and camels to evacuate it. Reem starts to like Mahmoud –though he’s married and she’s married too- and starts to defend these anti-revolution people as many revolutionists sees them.

The film is very good actually, and has many pros too. For starters it shows the emotional impact on people who took part in evacuating the Tahrir square and how misled they were. But the focus still isn’t enough on the real aftermath and it drifts to minor events, like Reem’s relationships. Still, I feel deep gratitude for the director, since he’s the only who tried to present the battle in the cinema till now.

Like many revolutions, new details are still appearing now, new faces show up, the revolution’s details are still being written. So any movie right now, or even a year from now, would never be able to get the whole picture, to really absorb the revolution and make the audience believe in it.

news@theasian.asia