Kids. A Cable Car. 900 Feet of Terror.
It premiered at Sundance this year, but Hanging by a Wire feels less like a film and more like a collective intake of breath the world still hasn’t quite let go of.
Directed by acclaimed Pakistani filmmaker Mohammed Ali “Mo” Naqvi, the documentary revisits a moment from August 2023 when an ordinary school commute in northern Pakistan became something unthinkable. In the remote Himalayan foothills of Battagram, a small, makeshift cable car carrying eight people – six of them schoolboys – suddenly stalled mid-air. Two of its supporting cables snapped without warning. One cable remained. Beneath them: a ravine plunging nearly 900 feet down. What followed was a long, nerve-shredding wait suspended between gravity and hope.
In rural Battagram, cable cars aren’t tourist gimmicks…they’re a daily necessity. Villagers depend on hand-built gondolas to cross deep ravines carved into the mountains, trusting systems held together by experience, improvisation, and sheer need. On that fateful morning, what should have been a routine ride to class turned into a fight for survival when disaster struck mid-air, leaving eight lives hanging by a thread…literally.
With time ticking toward potential collapse, rescuers, locals, military units, and even hobbyist drone pilots sprang into action. What unfolded was a nail-biting, hours-long rescue that tested nerves, physics, and human courage across rugged terrain. Naqvi’s film plunges you directly into that moment. Using grainy phone footage, dizzying drone shots, and deeply personal firsthand testimony, the documentary captures not just what happened, but how it felt. Suspense? Sky-high. Human drama? Even higher.
As the crisis escalated, it quickly became international news. Helicopters attempted dangerous maneuvers in thin mountain air. Officials coordinated rescue plans under intense pressure. Locals gathered below, watching, praying, and filming.
The documentary smartly widens its lens beyond the stranded passengers. We meet the people racing against time to save them: Sahib Khan, a local cable car specialist known as the ‘sky pirate,’ whose practical knowledge proved indispensable; zipline expert Muhammad Ali Swati, who helped rig an improvised pulley system hundreds of feet above the gorge; and Sonia Shamroz Khan, a district police officer overseeing a rescue where every call carried life-or-death stakes. Their reflections reveal how precarious the operation truly was, and how close it came to failing.
Running quietly beneath the tension is a deeper question: whose expertise counts when everything is on the line? As military officials, government authorities, and locals work side by side, fault lines emerge between formal power and lived knowledge. The film never preaches, but it makes its point clear — in places where infrastructure is fragile or neglected, survival often depends on people whose skills are learned through necessity, not credentials. For Naqvi, that framing is intentional. Speaking with Variety, he explained the philosophy guiding the film: “So many of the films that come from this region are framed through the lens of victimhood, of helplessness, of poverty and poverty porn,” he said. “I did not want to do that. I wanted to be deliberately subversive with this one. I wanted to show these people as resilient, as having agency. I wanted to show them as heroes.”
That ethos pulses through every frame.
The Filmmaker Behind the Lens
Before Hanging by a Wire, Naqvi had already built a formidable body of work. He co-directed Among the Believers (2015), a critically acclaimed documentary examining educational and ideological divides in Pakistan that premiered at major festivals including Tribeca. He went on to produce Turning Point: The Bomb & the Cold War, a sweeping Netflix docuseries exploring global power and nuclear history — a project that earned him an Emmy nomination and reached audiences worldwide.
Earlier in his career, his film Shame received a Television Academy Honor, making Naqvi the first Pakistani filmmaker to be recognized in that category. His broader portfolio includes documentaries produced for platforms such as the BBC and PBS, tackling complex political and social realities across South Asia. He also serves on the Pakistan Academy Selection Committee, helping determine which films represent the country at the Oscars — a testament to his standing in the global film community.
With Hanging by a Wire, Naqvi continues his signature blend of urgency and empathy, turning his lens toward a story that feels at once intimate and universal.
After nearly fourteen hours suspended above the ravine, all eight passengers were rescued alive. Relief comes swiftly, followed by unease. Because the film refuses to let the miracle stand alone. It asks why communities are forced to rely on such dangerous systems in the first place, and why attention so often arrives only when a crisis goes viral.