Com El Dekka, Alexandria, Egypt (2009)

Order and inner rules govern in the oldest slum Com El Dekka in Alexandria in Egypt. You climb up the stairs from the Foad Street and you find yourself in a completely different world, in a strange community of the poorest, living in very old houses in narrow streets enlaced with shiny thrums and fringes reminding us the recent Ramadan. You find your way through a herd of sheep around a mosque, inviting you to a prayer via a voice of an imam, heading to small bakeries, where bread and traditional falafel is baked, furniture workshops, car and shoe repair shops, small market with fish, fresh fruit and vegetables, which suddenly turns into a large heap of snow-white cotton, needed to make seats and armchairs. Every action takes place on the street, you feel like walking through the workshops, shops and cafés with no walls or doors, which change their faces all the time. People seem distrustful and withdrawn in the beginning, but after a while, they invite you for tea or for something to eat and then they part with you as if you were their long-time friend. You feel like the time stopped here, you feel the strange atmosphere of this place, you feel the sounds, the prayers with the banging, knocking and shouting of the children running around you, as it mixes with a scent of frying fish, baked bread, wood, frankincense and a smell of the sheep.