Movie tickets

April 10, 2020 | Dhaka | 30-39 years

I am wearing one of those PPE suits, but in this case, the suit is extra-large making me feel like an astronaut. I walk into an informal settlement ("slum") in the city. I walk through makeshift houses. I am here for the screening of a movie in the slum's theater. At the entrance, I meet a few people I know from Dhaka's slums. We exchange glances. They are standing in a small circle, maintaining distances from each other and talking through their heavy masks. I can't hear what they are saying. The sounds are all muffled. A lot of other people are standing in line to buy movie tickets so I join the line. The line moves forward slowly until I reach the ticket counter. Here I find a group of doctors handing out tickets to the movie. They ask me to write down my name and address, and I follow. I hand them 38 takas for two tickets, one for myself and another for my mother. The movie tickets are prescriptions for COVID-19. After I get the tickets, I head home, thinking I will watch the movie another day.