CAIRO — On the third anniversary of Egypt's January 25 Revolution, activists were delivered a number of blows. Thousands of army and government supporters rallied in Tahrir Square, the iconic epicenter of the revolution. Security forces shot tear gas and bullets at a crowd of activists marching toward Tahrir, including Khalid Abdalla, one of the stars of "The Square," the Oscar-nominated documentary about the revolution.
Two days before this year's anniversary, two dozen friends gathered in the living room of a houseboat on the Nile to watch a pirated copy of "The Square." They booed and hissed when a military spokesman defends the state’s actions, and they clapped when a Muslim Brotherhood member denounces the group’s political maneuvering. The next day, Jan. 24, many of them woke to the sound of a deadly car bombing that echoed downtown, one of four blasts in Cairo that day.