In the high granite mountains of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the Jebaliya Bedouin have lived for millennia in close relationship with the land. 

Around Saint Catherine, a small town at the foot of the range, narrow passes, steep ridgelines, and hidden ravines form a landscape the Jebaliya know intimately. An understanding of the mountain, from its winds to its seasonal rhythms, has been passed down through generations and sustained through daily practice. For the Jebaliya, these mountains are home.

That perspective differs from the way rugged landscapes are often framed in the Global North, as sites for endurance sports and adventure travel. For communities in Sinai, moving through the terrain depends on skills refined over centuries. Even their clothing reflects a different history. Long before synthetic performance fabrics, cotton offered a breathable, durable response to heat and movement.

In this year’s iteration of Tefnut, an annual collection and campaign series by Egyptian-Canadian fashion brand Kotn, filmmaker Hussein Mardini turns his lens on the Jebaliya, following Taher, a young Bedouin man raised in the mountains of South Sinai. The film centers on his community and the experiences required to navigate this terrain, illuminating how survival in this area is forged with a deep, inherited understanding of the landscape. 

In doing so, Tefnut presents a different view of a landscape often described as extreme. For the Jebaliya, life in the mountains is shaped by memory, and a sense of belonging and care passed down across generations.