Sharjah Art Foundation

Sharjah Biennial 16

Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
6 Febuary — 15 June 2025

The Square, 2013

Jehane Noujaim
The Square, 2013
Digital video, colour
104 minutes
English and Arabic with English and Arabic subtitles
Film still

Synopsis

The Square transports viewers into the intense emotional drama and personal stories behind the news. It is the inspirational story of young people claiming their rights and struggling through multiple forces in the fight to create a society of conscience.

All SAF events are free and open to the public.

Director

Jehane Noujaim, raised in Cairo, Egypt began her career as a photographer. Following a B.A. in Film and Philosophy at Harvard, she was awarded the Gardiner fellowship under which she directed Mokattam (1998). She also has worked for MTV's News and Documentary Division as a segment producer for the series Unfiltered, and as a director and cinematographer on films such as Born Rich, Only the Strong Survive, and Down from the Mountain. Noujaim went on to produce and direct the award-winning documentaries Startup.com (2001) and Control Room (2004). She has worked in both in the U.S. and the Middle East. She was co-director on Egypt: We Are Watching You, which premiered as one of the ten films in the Why Democracy? series focusing on contemporary democracy around the globe. Noujaim has also worked as a cinematographer on Born Rich (2003), Only the Strong Survive (2002), and Down from the Mountain (2002), and as executive producer on Encounter Point (2006) and Budrus (currently in release). In 2006, Noujaim won the TED Prize, an annual award in which the recipients are granted a wish. Jehane's TED Prize wish – to create a day in which the world comes together through film – was the catalyst for Pangea Day.

Trailer