The documentary "Reporting... A Revolution" tells the story of six intrepid Egyptian journalists who watched in horror from their Cairo hotel as security forces attacked protesters near Tahrir Square during last year's revolution. The film, which screened at this year's Berlin International Film Festival, delves into how reporters react when their home city turns into a war zone.

In January 2011, Nora Younis, a young Egyptian journalist had just arrived home after reporting on the Tunisian revolution. Instead of spending time with her family, fast-moving events on the streets pulled her back into the newsroom: The uprising had spread to Cairo. Before she knew it, Younis was covering another historic protest.

Foto: Al Masry Media Corporation

"I just got back from Tunisia and rather than being with my baby son, I had to go to Tahrir Square. The revolution was happening here," she told Spiegel Online. "It feels very different when it happens in your own country: When the outcome of the battle will influence your own and your son's future, it is no longer about journalism. It becomes a personally decisive moment."

That fine line between the personal and the professional forms the crux of the documentary "Reporting… A Revolution," part of the Berlin International Film Festival's spotlight on the Arab Spring. Directed by Bassam Mortada, the film follows Younis, a journalist, blogger and human rights activist, and five of her colleagues as they report on the 18-day revolt which kicked off on Jan. 25, 2011. The film swings between shaky handheld video camera footage of the violent clashes, and the journalists' candid reflections on what happened. Many of them are still trying to come to terms with the horrors they witnessed.

The film shows Younis, website editor of the daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, one of Egypt's leading independent publications, working from a temporary newsroom in a business hotel with an intact Internet connection. Under instruction from former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the hotel did not let the journalists rent a suite overlooking Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the protests, but instead gave them a room with a view of the Nile. As it happened, it turned out to be an ideal vantage point, overlooking the Qasr al-Nil bridge where protesters were teeming toward downtown Cairo.