AllMovie

Cairo's El Arafa cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in the Middle East -- so big, in fact, that a city has spring up in the midst of the burial ground. El Arafa has become a haven for Cairo's poor, as families have settled into the larger tomb houses and other buildings that have sprung up around them, and businesses catering to the neighborhood have also found a place in the graveyard. While the people who call El Arafa home are surrounded by death, the place is also full of life as children play amongst the gravestones, farmers herd their animals through the narrow pathways and the residents work hard to make ends meet and raise their families. Filmmaker Sergio Tréfaut profiles some of the people who live in the massive cemetery and ponders the paradox of people living their lives while surrounded by the deceased in his documentary The City Of The Dead. The City Of The Dead was an official selection at the 2009 Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival.