Jamie Allinson

At midday on Sunday the temperature hovered around 33 degrees in Tahrir Square. People crowded into the shade but didn't give up their chanting and flag waving. In the late afternoon, as the sun began to set and the temperature dropped, flag wavers, drummers, horn honkers and angry chanters set out from across Cairo towards either Tahrir Square or the Presidential Palace, protesting against President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood's polarising style of governance, and their failure to revive the economy and restore security. The numbers were 'unprecedented', even for a country that has seen its share of 'unprecedented' protests over the past three years. Simultaneous demonstrations were held throughout the country, from the cities on the Suez Canal to the agricultural heartland of the Nile Delta to more conservative Upper Egypt. Some estimated the turnout in the millions.

Posters for the movie El Fagoumi, which tells the life story of the folk poet Ahmad Fuad Negm, show the actors superimposed over Tahrir Square in revolutionary tumult. The image is almost indistinguishable from the montages of the ‘Revolution of 25 January’ that play on music video channels or hang incongruously from the government offices the demonstrations were directed against.