کوچه زغالی-Charcoal Alley

Last year when my mum was going through chemo treatments and me and Jonah stayed in Tehran, I set my self a task to work on a project as some kind of coping mechanism with the sad situation we were all in. The project is about a back street around the bazaar in Tajrish .Behind the hostel and bustle of shopping malls where old and new meets, there is an old street where time seems to have stopped. Here is Koocheh Zoghali (Charcoal Alley) with its old school public bath, the second hand shops with all sorts of bric- a- brac, a Tekiyeh where during the mourning month for Imam Hossein, the ceremonies are held and only one actual charcoal shop remaining from old time. Above them all is a huge crane casting its shadow on the street. The crane feels like a giant about to devour this old narrow alley.

At least once a week for few months, me and Jonah would go to Koocheh Zoghali. Jonah in his pram absorbing sights and sounds while I talked to people, shot some super 8 and recorded sounds.

Mum passed away. 3 months went by and I thought again as some kind of coping mechanism I need to go back to the footage and start working on them. By this time, many events have happened. What one of the shopkeepers told me then as merely a prediction, did materialise. He said 90 percent of his predictions do come true and unfortunately this one did.Hell did broke loose in October 2019.