I travel to record.
I record to travel.

For many years I searched to find a purpose during my filmmaking wanderings throughout the world. The documentarist, they say, wherever he is always looks for a purpose to justify his role: a reason to return and a reason to stay. My own was created when I found myself accidentally in a dark Sufi tekke in the area of Findikli in Istanbul. They welcomed me. They did not know me and I did not know them. I sat with them, ate a light supper and then they invited me upstairs. I did not speak Turkish. Hesitantly I took out my camera and with a simple nod they consented. The ceremony began and I started to record. I felt I was losing myself amongst the repetitive movements and sounds of prayer. I felt as if I was swaying with my camera. After a while I left filled with unprecedented emotions, as if I had found a direction, a lonely path. It is this path that I follow for years while traveling from Afghanistan to Sudan, from there to Egypt and back to Iran, from Turkey to our parts, the deserted tekkes in Greece. I believe that I found a meaning in filmmaking, a sacred purpose and it is this mystical path.

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