As a charismatic revolutionary from a scrappy Cairo neighbourhood, Ahmed Hassan was one of the stars of Jehane Noujaim’s 2013 documentary The Square, which followed a group of Egyptian activists as they toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and then fought to keep their faltering revolution alive.
The film won three Emmy Awards and was nominated for the Oscars. But Hassan’s life got harder after it was released.
His work as a cinematographer and filmmaker dried up as production companies stopped hiring him, perhaps because he was blacklisted.
He had to abandon a film project after receiving threats. He could not carry a camera in the street without being harassed. Most of his friends were in prison, some had died.