Pakistan has selected Mohammed Ali “Mo” Naqvi’s documentary thriller Hanging by a Wire as its official entry for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards. It marks the first time Pakistan has chosen a documentary for the category.
According to Deadline, the film revisits the dramatic 2023 rescue of six schoolchildren and two adults who became trapped in a cable car about 900 feet above the ground in Battagram, northern Pakistan. A cable snapped, leaving the passengers suspended high above the valley.
Naqvi directed, wrote and produced the film with Bilal Sami. Hanging by a Wire combines eyewitness footage, survivor testimony and cinematic reconstructions featuring people who took part in the rescue.
The documentary premiered in the World Cinema Documentary competition at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. It later screened at the Tribeca Festival, the Seattle International Film Festival and the Sydney Film Festival. It is also set to screen at the 23rd annual Bend Film Festival in Oregon.
“I’m honoured that Hanging by a Wire has been selected to represent Pakistan in the International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards, and grateful to the Pakistan Academy Selection Committee,” Naqvi told Deadline.
“It’s a straight-up disaster film, except it really happened, and you’re watching real footage of it unfolding live,” he said. Naqvi added that members of the local community filmed the rescue themselves and trusted him with the footage, effectively making them co-authors of the film.
He said the film is also about how resilient and resourceful the community was, both during the rescue and while documenting the crisis.
The film comes from EverWonder Studio, Universal Pictures Content Group, Mindhouse Productions and 64th Street Media. Dogwoof handles its theatrical distribution in the UK, while Abramorama handles the US release. A Paramount+ streaming release is scheduled for later this month.
Naqvi has said the remote area where the incident occurred has no proper roads. Residents rely on makeshift cable cars to travel through the mountains, a system he described as dangerous. During location scouting, he travelled in one of the cable cars himself.
Hanging by a Wire focuses on several local people who joined the rescue effort. They include Sahib Khan, a cable car repairman known locally as a “sky pirate” for his aerial exploits, and Ali Swati, who had access to high-quality zipline equipment and joined the rescue.
The operation was ultimately overseen by Sonia Shamroz, described in the film as the district’s “no-nonsense head of police”. She faced the possibility of being held responsible if the rescue went wrong.
Sana Zahra Jafri, deputy chairperson of the Pakistan Academy Selection Committee, called the selection a historic moment for Pakistani documentary filmmaking. She said the film brings an extraordinary story from northern Pakistan to the International Feature Film Oscar race.
