THE RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY

Kais is a tour guide in Jemen. When the revolution breaks out he thinks nothing of it at first except that it is bad for business, which, in any case, hasn’t been going very well. Reluctantly he leads his client, the director Sean McAllister, to what is known as Change Square, the centre of the democracy movement. It is not until he meets the demonstrators there and witnesses the shocking violence of the state apparatus against them that Kais is transformed into an assured revolutionary.
McAllister’s approach involves building a close personal relationship with his charismatic protagonist. In the process he engages with what is going on around him, incites developments and eventually with his camera becomes an active participant in the events himself. An emotional film. Andrea Kuhn