IFFR 2012 - Sobering report from Egypt hit with festival audience

That Martin Scorsese's mesmerising Hugo was number one in the audience rating for a while at the Rotterdam festival is not so surprising. What is surprising, however, is the film that emerged as number two yesterday and is now Hugo displaced from first place: the documentary Back to the Square in which filmmaker Petr Lom looks at the state of Egypt after the euphoria of Tahrir Square and Mubarak's departure.

Well, not so good then. For the average Egyptian, little has changed; indeed, from the sometimes harrowing stories, we gather that the police are even more brutal than under Mubarak. "We have chopped off the head, but the corruption remains," says yet another person. Elsewhere, a poverty-stricken young souvenir vendor tells how he went to Tahrir Square full of hope but was beaten by protesters because they mistook him for a Mubarak fan. After which the family had to sell the goat to pay the doctor. To make matters worse, tourists are failing.

Disconcerting and straightforward are the scenes in which Lom visits young Salwa, who lives with her mother in a town outside Cairo. She found (and lost) her first love in Tahrir Square, and after being accused of prostitution, she is basically unwelcome in the village.

"Let's talk further inside she tells the film crew", but she is not safe there either. Some men - sort of self-appointed village chiefs - boldly step inside and start calling the shots, until good Salwa can no longer stand it and screams out in anger.

Later, we will meet her again in Cairo, where she has taken off her headscarf and demonstratively put on a breezy dress. She so wants to enjoy freedom, but that is not easy as long as street boys still believe they can lecture girls.

Meanwhile, all sorts of demonstrations and protests are still taking place on a smaller scale in Cairo, but the world's cameras have already moved on.

Back to the Square is one of the stronger contributions to the festival's Power Cut Middle East programme. It is a Norwegian-Canadian production, by the way.

Leo Bankersen