“One of the hardest things to figure out is when you’ve really finished a film, when to say stop,” the director Jehane Noujaim said.
She thought she knew: When her latest, “The Square,” a documentary about the Egyptian revolution, played at the Sundance Film Festival in January, it ended with the election the previous June of the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi as president, replacing Hosni Mubarak after 30 years of authoritarian rule. But history has no respect for filmmakers, and even before the first screening, Ms. Noujaim knew she needed to regroup.
She did, several times as events unfolded. There was a cut for Sundance; another one submitted in the summer to the Toronto International Film Festival; the version that actually played Toronto in September; and the final one opening Oct. 25 in New York (similar to the previous version, with technical tweaks).
“Until this last cut I was never completely satisfied,” Ms. Noujaim said.
In each case the story began in 2011 with anti-Mubarak protesters taking over Tahrir Square in Cairo. The locked version of the film continues through the 2012 election of Mr. Morsi and concludes with the military ousting him in July and the massacre of his supporters at sit-ins in August.
For Ms. Noujaim, an Egyptian-American, the impetus to remake her movie was less about the political process than the evolution of the film’s central characters: Magdy Ashour, a Muslim Brotherhood member, and Ahmed Hassan, a secularist. Originally united against Mr. Mubarak, they found themselves on opposing sides when Mr. Morsi and his pro-Islamist government took over.
“We just had to wait and film another year,” Ms. Noujaim said.
The movie, she said, is done. Here’s a look at its changes over the past two years:
Noujaim Films
The Original Ending
The Sundance version ended with the June 2012 election of Mr. Morsi. “Some people are afraid, but they should give Morsi a chance,” Magdy Ashour, a Muslim Brotherhood member, says in the film, in which he is seen with his son and wears a Morsi T-shirt. Tortured under the Mubarak regime, he was conflicted about the rise of Islamists in the Egyptian government. “If Morsi isn’t able to prove himself, he should leave power,” he says.
Noujaim Films
Debating the Fate of a Revolution
A scene between Mr. Ashour, left, and Ahmed Hassan, right, was dropped, then restored to emphasize their relationship: Mr. Hassan champions a new constitution and new elections and confronts Mr. Ashour over what he sees as a Morsi dictatorship. “Magdy, I love you,” Mr. Hassan says, “but I hate the Brotherhood.” They had been allies earlier in Tahrir Square, but by the winter of 2012 they have parted over Egypt’s direction. “You elected a president, you need to be patient,” Mr. Ashour says.
Noujaim Films
Egypt Aflame
By summer 2013 unrest has ratcheted up, and new footage reflecting the escalating violence is added for the version of the film submitted to the Toronto festival. Mr. Morsi says in a televised address that the time has come to punish his opponents, and another protester, the actor Khalid Abdalla (“The Kite Runner”), understands Mr. Morsi’s words to mean “he’s ordering his people to attack us.” Mr. Abdalla, a Cambridge-educated Egyptian who spent years outside the country, becomes a third main protagonist in “The Square.”
Noujaim Films
Women on the Ramparts
Among the millions who protested the Morsi government on June 30, 2013, a Christian opponent and her Islamic counterpart demonstrate together. Multiple issues are at stake, including the dire economy and the Brotherhood’s Islamist program. Ms. Noujaim said: “You saw that they would stand up against fascism and corruption whether the face of that fascism was Mubarak or the military or the Brotherhood.” The protests were too late to be included in the film submitted to Toronto, but did make the cut shown to festival audiences.
Noujaim Films
Phoning a Friend
Mr. Hassan, above, still unsure of his country’s direction and vowing to remain in the square until a constitutional democracy is established, speaks by phone this August to Mr. Ashour, whose Muslim Brotherhood was on the ropes. “Magdy, as much as I’ve been violent in words, that was just anger speaking. Honestly, I want to come to be with you. After all, this revolution was for a principle, not for blood.” For his part, Mr. Ashour calls the removal from office of Mr. Morsi an affront. “You’re putting our religion on the line,” he says. “You’re challenging our belief in an Islamic country.
Noujaim Films
En Route to a Massacre
In August Mr. Ashour takes part in the pro-Morsi sit-ins. “I’m not here to die or to kill,” he tells Mr. Hassan. But the protests end in bloodshed when army and police forces, at the behest of the military-appointed government, sweep in and kill hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood members. Mr. Ashour was “violently removed” from the scene, but reportedly survived. At the end of the film, Mr. Hassan says he and his fellow demonstrators are not looking for a leader. “Everyone who went to Tahrir is a leader,” he says. “We are looking for a conscience.”
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