AllMovie

Ten Egyptian filmmakers offer their perspectives on the eighteen-day revolutionary uprising that took place in their homeland during January 2011 in this anthology feature. In Retention by Sherif Arafa, a handful of characters watch the revolution unfold on television from inside a mental hospital. A street vendor finds her life and attitudes upended in a variety of ways by the revolt in Kamla Abu Zikry's God's Creation. One of the organizers of the uprising is found out by authorities before he can join the fight in 19 19 by Marwan Hamed. When The Flood Hits You from Mohamed Ali focuses on two men who see an opportunity to make some fast money in the midst of the revolution. Sherif Bendary follows an elderly man who is taking his grandson home from the hospital only to discover the lateness of the hour in Curfew. In Khaled Marei's Revolution Cookies, a tailor dazed by illness is convinced the chaos on the streets is the product of a military invasion, and locks himself in his shop for the eighteen days of the revolt. #Tahrir 2/2, directed by Mariam Abo Ouf, concerns the differing reactions to a speech by Honsi Mubarak by a woman and her husband, the latter of whom covertly works as hired muscle for the Egyptian leader. A young man follows the tumultuous events from his bedroom through social media and the internet in Ahmad Abdaliah's Window. A couple's relationship reaches the breaking point in the midst of the uprising in Yousri Nasrallah's Interior/Exterior. And Ashraf Seberto by Ahmed Alaa concerns a barber who opens his doors to the wounded during street skirmishes. 18 Days received its world premiere at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, only a few months after the events in the film took place.