Filmmakers have been rushing to bring the events of the Arab Spring to screen in the past few months. Tahrir 2011: The Good, the Bad and the Politician is the latest venture to try to decipher the events that took place in Egypt in February, which resulted in the ousting of President Mubarak.
The movie is split into three sections. The first section, The Good, is directed by Tamer Ezzat and shows footage of the demonstrators when they took to Tahrir Square in Cairo in February. Much of the footage used in these scenes is shot by the actual protesters themselves and has been collated together by the director to form a picture of the 18-day demonstration. The Bad, filmed by Ayten Amin, focuses on the police and in particular four internal security officers assigned to crush the uprising. They are interviewed about the tactics used and their view of events. The Politician, helmed by Amr Salama, offers a satirical guide to becoming a dictator while giving a potted history of Mubarak, containing interviews with several political figures.
It was a project that came together pretty quickly, says Ezzat. "We were united by the producer Mohamed Abu Zekry, who knew all of us. He started with an idea about making a documentary about the revolution with Amr, and Amr came up with the concept of three parts; the good, the bad, the ugly, and the idea was to have three directors, each would direct with their own style and then I came on board and then Ayten."
They each immediately accepted the section that they were assigned. Salama adds: "When we first started, I personally preferred The Politician section and when we called Ayten Amin, we thought it might be very interesting for a girl to do the police part."
Amin was glad to oblige. "I had a curiosity towards the police. I had some questions that I really wanted answered. But this was very positive for me because I discovered many things. I usually don't speak to police officers and before the events [Arab Spring], I avoided them. It was difficult to really speak to them and to get them on camera. I spoke to 12 police officers and in the end I ended up shooting with only four. Many others approved and then changed their minds or when they went on camera they didn't say the same things."
Having to capture events that are taking place meant that decisions had to be made on a hunch as to what was important without the benefit of hindsight and that shaped the picture, the Saudi-born director Salama explains. "I think the best thing was that we captured the spirit of the moment because if you do the same interviews with the same people today, they would say something else. If we made the same film today, I may exclude some people or I might have known that they were lying at certain moments." The first date of elections was set for September and then the goalposts were moved to November by the interim government. As the days and months have dragged on there has been a worry that perhaps democracy will prove elusive.
Salama says of the military government: "And now they are under a lot of pressure, and even if they are not experienced with politics and stuff, I believe myself that there will be an election in November, or maybe a bit later."
The trouble is that other countries and stories have knocked Egypt off the front pages, although the attacks on a church this week served as a timely reminder that there are still a lot of problems in the move to democracy. The wavering interest from the international media is a concern for the filmmakers. Ezzat says: "That's why we discovered going to Venice and coming here [the Toronto International Film Festival], speaking to the media, that there are lots of things that happen on a daily basis. Maybe it is not interesting to the media because there aren't people being killed or there are no casualties."
Salama adds: "I think now we have bigger problems with people not being aware of what democracy is, more than we have a problem with the military."
Trying to highlight the end of the dictatorship is one of the reasons that Salama thinks it's important to put Mubarak on trial no matter how sick he is. It's to show accountability of actions, which Egyptians have not seen for a generation. "I think just the image of Mubarak, after 30 years of being the president of Egypt, and so many generations not witnessing any other president or having the mere thought of him dying, seeing him behind bars marks a big achievement to this revolution."
Amin adds that the film can also help the move to democracy. "It is the importance of the documentary to get the spirit of the revolution, what happened and I think, when you watch the film, you have a good idea about what happened and what the situation was during those 18 days."
This is especially important as Salama is worried that there are forces at work attempting to rewrite the revolution. "It is our job to document this for the next generation. There are a lot of people working in the dark to just smear the reputation of this revolution. There are a lot of powers in Egypt that want to make it look like just an act of violence."
Tahrir 2011: The Good, the Bad and the Politician is showing on Friday at 6.15pm at Vox 8 and on Monday at 1pm at Vox 2
