Filming Revolutions - "Maidan" and "The Square"

“Maidan” is a moving, sometimes harrowing documentary on the public protests that brought down the Yanukovych government in Ukraine early last year. But worth seeing.

First released at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014, probably only 2 months after the last footage was shot, much of the film is a series of still, long takes of the crowds, over successive days. At first it was like watching paint dry but the tension builds towards the harrowing second half with scenes of violence and grief. The approach contrasts with another recent "revolution" documentary, "The Square," about the Arab Spring in Egypt. The Square has a more common format – fast-paced editing of hand-carried camera footage in the midst of the action and interviews to get to know the main characters and their motivations. Both films try to make you feel what it was like to be there. “Maidan” is the film that lingers.