18 Days (2011) User Reviews

Good, but not the movie our revolution deserves.

[3osman_mohammed · 6/10 · 4 July 2017]

Finally the movie was leaked online after 6 years of ban by the government, so I was very excited and watched it immediately, but after finishing it I am a little bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the movie is good in overall with some amazing segments (1919 was my favorite with Amr Waked, Bassem AlSamra and Eyad Nassar all doing great acting, the one about the curfew was very neat with the best directing in the whole movie, and the last one "Ashraf Seberto" was very touching and great acting from Farrag as well). But some segments were very disappointing (like when the flood hits which was very naive and clumsy, and god's creation which was my major disappointment because it's directed by Kamla Abu Zekry -one of my favorite directors- and have a strong cast but was very clichéd with no real message).

In my opinion, the biggest problem with the movie is the first segment, which was horrible, and certainly the worst segment of them all. Despite being directed by a talented director -Sherif Arafa- it was awfully directed and shooted, very childish and all the actors were very artificial. Starting with this segment harms the whole movie for sure as it gives a very bad impression and may spoil the whole movie for some. The movie also needed some more excitement or some more interesting real shots from the revolution, to capture the real soul of the revolution and the great achievement of finally removing Mubarak, but this doesn't mean the stories weren't good, because in general there was more good than bad.

In general, it is a good experiment and I am happy to see an Arabic movie in this style which is new on the Arabic cinema in general and Egyptian cinema in particular, and more happy to see a movie talking about the Egyptian revolution honestly finally after 6 years, and despite the problems I think it is worth some encouragement.

18 Days

[croixs · 8/10 · 10 July 2017]

The movie that was banned 6 years ago, it was shown in early July 2017 after leaking on the Internet. The film was not shown in theaters as there were rumors that the censorship refused to release the film. I'm not a big fan of Arabic movies but here I am watching one of the best movies our Egyptian cinema deserves, just like Clash or Eshtbak movie. The movie tells 10 stories by ten different filmmakers each with its own take on Egypt's revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak, focusing on the 18 days of our great Jan 25th 2011 Egyptian revolution and how most of Egyptian people dealt with. The movie had its Middle East premiere at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. I liked the whole movie and it was more than good to me to experience such riveting and intriguing film. I was so excited to watch the movie as I know how I felt when I watched Clash, this one here is touching, brutal and cruel. It presents the same reality that we live in today, not understanding what we're going through, not knowing the consequences of our choice that we've made.

The first short film, Retention was written and directed by Sheriff Arafa, is kinda left something to the audience to follow, how the movie begins with some unknown place and unknown people with different personalities. It was not bad at all with these outstanding performances of actors. The second one, God's Creation by Kamla Abou Zikri, isn't the kind of stories i like to move on with in a revolution but it's good to be mentioned anyway. After that my favorite brutal segment of the movie, 19-19 by Marwan Hamed, how they showed the cruelty of police with young people who was arrested with unfairness reasons like Clash movie and their sadly expected ending, death in vain. The forth short film, When the Flood Hits You by Mohamed Ali, so poor of writing and sending the whole message but still, we can't deny the fact that none of these stories aren't essential to see how different Egyptian people reacted towards the revolution. I liked Curfew by Sheriff El Bendari, what was really going through the nights of Egypt back in the exact time. My second favorite short film, Revolution Cookies by Khaled Marei, I loved how Ahmed Helmy acted in these minutes besides the good ending of course. Tahrir 2/2 by Mariam Abou Ouf, the poor people who are drove by rich ones and all what they care about is to live just happily for today. Window by Ahmad Abdalla, is a great non screenplay short movie and it was enjoyable how just to figure it out the hidden messages in it. The next one is Interior/Exterior by Yousry Nasrallah, I didn't like it so much but it was a true live story we all lived. The final one is Ashraf Seberto by Ahmad Alaa, very touching, very bravely and without people like Ashraf Seberto, a lot of young revolutionaries may died.

I didn't hear good music or good tracks in the movie, they should have been more mindful about that. With strong language, the movie should be rated R. It was a great experience as great as Clash, I hope everyone enjoys it as it's a true step forward for the Arabic and Egyptian cinema, hope to see more movies like this one in directing and cinematography.

10/10 Egyptian revolution

[mostafanabil64 · 10/10 · 20 July 2017]

I like how the stories r displayed about everything happened out of the revolution itself,making it more realistic. every story is relatable to the people every story every word is just so reals-tic to what happened in those days i like that movie and give it 10/10 for nothing but the story.