Sicilian filmmaker Stefano Savona traveled to Cairo as soon as possible after hearing about the protests in Tahrir Square, arriving in time to begin filming on January 30, 2011, the sixth day of the revolution. While three young demonstrators Noha, Ahmed, and Elsayed act as guides and Greek chorus, thousands of recurring faces and strident voices punctuate this intense and strangely dreamlike portrait of a place and a people on the cusp of political transformation. Savona’s skillful and patient observational cinematography—so different from the poor-quality footage of the Arab Spring revolts seen elsewhere—provides a compelling window on the vertiginous confusion, anxiety, and violence experienced during those heady days and nights, as well as the transporting expressions of national pride and community identity. The film, beautifully edited and presented without any voice-over or explanatory titles, immerses the viewer in the prosaic and transcendent details of a collective reimagining of Egypt, echoing the Soviet montage of Sergei Eisenstein.  BG