I never understood the proximity rules between dead Muslims and Christians. Even if no amount of interfaith dialogue could bring Muslims and Christians together, death can.
As a hyphenated Muslim-American, I couldn’t help but remember and wonder about the one Christian family that lived in my village when I was growing up in Egypt 50 years ago. What became of them? What trace had they left, if any? I decided to make a trip back to Egypt and into that history to find out more about this Christian family and why my village was immune to the rift between faiths.
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This documentary is inspired by the story of Kyriakos, a Coptic Egyptian who lived in my predominantly Muslim village for years. His life—and his extraordinary burial in a Muslim cemetery—broke with tradition, revealing a deeper story of coexistence, identity, and belonging.
Through personal narratives and historical reflections, this film intertwines his journey with my own as a minority Muslim living in the U.S. As I return to my village, revisiting familiar places and voices, a new story emerges—one that speaks to the quiet harmony of a rural Egyptian community of 5,000 people.
