The Hand of the Butterfly

It's the end of summer in Mafrouza, a shantytown in Alexandria (Egypt). Preparing tea, preaching, messing around, making babies, dancing, singing, swimming... The camera follows the people of Mafrouza as they patiently reconstruct themselves and the world around them. They show some kind of an incredible strength of life, some kind of a crazy capacity for happiness, that enables them to grin and bear the harshness of the material conditions. This may sometimes appear to be pure miracle, but turns the neighborhood into a space of vitality and freedom. What is to be Done? is the third part of the Mafrouza film project that includes 5 installments, shot along two years in the area. Each film can be seen independently.

A hundred years of images researched and found, Fragments of film, family reels, pixels. A martyr saint, a warrior. Saint Efisio, an icon who moves the people. A holiday, a rite which repeats outside of time and brings with it the masks of dominations past and present, of an island; Sardinia. What escapes? What remains? Question and answer is the foundation of editing And renews the past in another past. In this encounter of deferred glances, the holy day is renewed again in memory and in dream, far from known places.

The people of the Mafrouza shantytown in Alexandria daily reconstruct themselves and the world around them, but they also question the camera, who answers them and thus becomes a character in the film.

The final film in Emmanuelle Demoris' Mafrouza cycle. Mohamed Khattab runs a grocery in the area. A sheik, he also preaches the Friday sermon in the local mosque, but in the holiday period leading up to Eid, the «beards » arrive to take over the mosque. The people of Mafrouza discuss this takeover calmly and clear-sightedly. As one of Mohamed Khattab’s close friends comments, "the Brothers seek to attract people; if you love someone, you don’t try to attract them, you talk to them directly." Hurt, Mohamed Khattab keeps his intentions quiet, but he has not given up. What happens next gives him a chance to vent his anger and opposition, as well as express his bond with the film crew, now due to leave, the filming completed, after two years spent in the area.

A shantytown built inside the antique necropolis of Alexandria. An archaeological visit leads us to meet a few people, taking the time to be really close to them. Each encounter reveals a new novel. And we discover how people survive daily, with an incredible strength for life and a crazy capacity for happiness, that enables them to grin and bear the harshness of the materials conditions.