osiris
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I am curious. Netflix recently added a film THE SQUARE nominated for Best Picture documentary, I believe, about the Egyptian revolution. Have you seen it or heard of it or have an opinion I think it should be interesting.
WSS
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I am curious. Netflix recently added a film THE SQUARE nominated for Best Picture documentary, I believe, about the Egyptian revolution. Have you seen it or heard of it or have an opinion I think it should be interesting.
WSS
I am curious. Netflix recently added a film THE SQUARE nominated for Best Picture documentary, I believe, about the Egyptian revolution. Have you seen it or heard of it or have an opinion I think it should be interesting.
WSS
It is on my to-do-soon list, I will give an opinion soon!
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So I just watched this documentary and I would say to you it is extremely accurate in its portrayal of the "revolution." It also further enhanced my belief that most if not all of the major events in the revolution were steered by the military for the ultimate benefit of the military. Some things to consider, and just put yourself in the shoes of a very powerful military establishment that is intent on retaining its power while appearing like it is supporting the will of the people:
1) I don't remember if it was mentioned in the movie, but it was well known in Egypt that some in the military did not want Gamal Mubarak (Hosni's son) to succeed him in the presidency. This casts a whole new light as to the very inception of the revolution. It might be a stretch to claim that certain factions in the military orchestrated it. Rather, they likely saw it as an opportunity to remove the entire Mubarak power structure so they could install someone else from the military. I don't think it is a coincidence that in the original 18 days of the revolution that ousted Mubarak, the military was at its most restrained in dealing with the protesters.
2) You saw the multiple mentions of the Muslim Brotherhood making a deal with the military regime. I agree that this happened and that they betrayed the the youth movement that first began the revolution. What is also strongly implied is that this deal created a rift between the Muslim Brotherhood and the youth, and was a primary goal of the deal-making in the first place. This, in my mind, is where the military won the revolution because they also set the Muslim Brotherhood up to win the elections. Sounds contradictory? Read on.
3) Fast forward to the elections. Remember at this point the military is still considered heroic for their "support" of the protesters. The movie doesn't mention that there was a review committee that approved/denied who could or couldn't run for the election. It doesn't mention the the Muslim Brotherhood's first candidate, Khairat el-Shater, was disqualified. El-Shater was a millionaire businessman who owned a successful furniture and textile business. Mohammed Morsi, on the other hand, was born into a modest family, became an engineer who earned a PhD in America, worked for NASA, then returned to Egypt to become a professor. Not a bad career, but given a choice between an academic engineer or a millionaire businessman, who would you vote for to run your country? If it were me it would be el-Shatter. Oops, he was disqualified. Here, you can have this poorly-spoken fat buffoon instead. It is a win-win for the military. If the people elect Morsi, he will fail so badly that the people will be begging the military to depose him. If they elect the former Mubarak guy and former military man, you have one of your own in power again.
4)The people elected Morsi. He failed horribly as the military probably predicted. The people called for his removal. The military was all too happy to step in and remove him "to carry out the will of the people." Hello new military dictatorship, same as the old military dictatorship.
Aside from this movie, I'm also convinced that this is what happened based on things that have developed since this movie was made. The cult of personality that is being built around General al-Sisi, the kind of hilarious regurgitated propaganda I hear come out the mouths of Egyptians that I know, it all tells me this whole thing was either a set-up or some very clever maneuvering by the military to steer the situation back into their favor.
So that's my long-winded opinion. If you have any questions I'm happy to answer them.
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I, like Steve, saw it on Netflix but didn't know if I was going to give it a shot. Will give it a watch now.
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