“Tahrir, square of Liberation”: a documentary in the heart of the Egyptian uprising

One year ago, Tahrir Square was a place full of ecstatic Egyptians. Men, women, young people, old people, bosses, peasants, believers and atheists: people were unified to put down a dictatorship.

Early at the beginning of the demonstrations, an Italian called Stefano Savona decides to take his little camera out and joins the strikes. Immersed in the same uncertainty like the people he films, Savona wants to capture the happiness of the moment.

“You should be in a sarcophagus, with pharaohs, stay here, you are old…The difference between you and us is that we are the people that work, who are starving, and to whom everything is forbidden…Egyptians, what do you want ? You want democracy before the old man steals the Nile.” These slogans were yelled by hundreds of thousands of voices for days upon end.

What was really going on within this crowd? Where did the strikers find the bravery to stay up when being attacked by tanks and the army? Savona offers the opportunity to share the daily lives of those persons who change the history of their country.

He listened to their claims, their stories, their hopes, but also their fears when they were being chased by the army. Hour after hour Savona witnessed, with his camera, the realisation of a new page of history.

Interrogations about democracy rose amongst the crowd as the euphoria of the revolt spread. A year after the uprising of the Egyptian people how could we not feel a hearty pinch watching the eagerness of people who were tortured and oppressed for ages?