KARACHI: Pakistan is set to mark another milestone in its journey with the Academy Awards, after the country’s academy selection committee chose Mohammed Ali ‘Mo’ Naqvi’s documentary film Hanging by a Wire to represent the country in the Best International Feature category.
This marks the first time a documentary has been chosen to represent Pakistan at the awards. The country first submitted a film in the category in 1959 and has not received a nomination with any of its 13 entries so far. The best Pakistan has ever done was in 2022, when Saim Sadiq’s Joyland secured a spot on the shortlist.
Directed by Naqvi, who also wrote and produced it alongside Bilal Sami, Hanging by a Wire follows the harrowing Battagram cable car incident of 2023.
The incident took place in August 2023 and involved eight people — including six children of varying ages — getting stuck on a local cable car 900 feet above a raging river.
After an initial helicopter rescue managed to save only two of the children, rescuers retrieved the remaining passengers by sliding to the stranded cable car along one of the remaining cables and bringing its occupants back one by one late into the night.
The cable car, which crossed the Jhangri River, was the only way children in the area could cross the river in the absence of roads and bridges.
In a press release in July, Naqvi said: “To me, this film is a statement about what Pakistani cinema can be. A story from our mountains, told by our own people, can be a full-blooded action thriller — it can open Sundance, play the world’s biggest festivals, and be backed by a major Hollywood studio.”
He said Pakistan’s stories did not “have to be small or solemn to matter” and that he hoped his film “opens doors for many more to come”.
Hanging by a Wire is produced jointly by teams from Pakistan, the US and the UK, with Universal Pictures Content Group being part of the process. The film has had a highly successful festival run, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival and playing in Sydney, Seattle and the Tribeca Festival in New York.
Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2026
