Hanging By A Wire

Director Mohammed Ali Naqvi on site for a post-screening Q&A.

On the morning of August 22, 2023, eight passengers – six of them schoolboys – board a makeshift cable car for what should be a routine commute to school in the mountains of northern Pakistan. Midway across a deep ravine, two of the three supporting cables snap. The gondola lurches violently and comes to rest, suspended more than 900 feet above the ground by a singled amaged wire.

What follows unfolds in realtime over the course of one harrowing day – a survival ordeal shaped by uncertainty, escalating danger, and the relentless pressure of being watched. The rescue plays out live on national television and social media, captured from every angle: panicked families on the ground, military helicopters battling high winds, first responders scrambling for solutions, drones circling overhead, and footage filmed from inside the cablecar itself as hours pass and darkness approaches.

With no margin for error and a cable that could fail at any moment, an unlikely alliance of rescuers must improvise under intense public scrutiny – racing against an invisible clock before disaster strikes live on television.

“…provides a dash of thrill, magnifying the events of this human interest story to cinematic scope, and giving audiences a sense of the chaos, the tension, and the catharsis of that tumultuous day of terror…” – Jason Gorber, povmagazine.com