Pakistan has selected Mohammed Ali ‘Mo’ Naqvi’s documentary thriller Hanging by a Wire as its submission for the International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards, marking the first time the country has submitted a non-fiction documentary feature in the category.

Pakistan has made multiple submissions to the Academy Awards since the 1950s, while Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Saving Face became the first Pakistani documentary to win an Oscar in 2012. The documentary won in the Best Documentary (Short Subject) category.

The Pakistan Academy Selection Committee (PASC) selected Hanging by a Wire as the country’s entry, with committee deputy chair Sana Zahra Jafri announcing the decision.

Directed by Naqvi, who also wrote and produced the film with Bilal Sami, Hanging by a Wire tells the story of a 2023 Battagram cable car incident in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

Eight people, including six children, became trapped around 900 feet above the Jhangri River after the cable car they were travelling in stopped midway in August 2023.

The passengers remained stranded from early morning until late at night as rescuers worked to bring them to safety. A helicopter operation initially rescued two children, while rescuers later reached the cable car by moving along one of the remaining cables and brought the other passengers back one by one.

The cable car served as the only crossing for children in the area, where a lack of roads and bridges left them dependent on it to cross the river.

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 added that Pakistan’s stories didn’t “have to be small or solemn to matter” and said that he hoped his film “opens doors for many more to come”.

Teams from Pakistan, the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) jointly produced the documentary, with Universal Pictures Content Group also involved in the project.

Hanging by a Wire premiered on the opening day of this year’s Sundance Film Festival and later screened in Sydney, Seattle and at the Tribeca Festival in New York.

Naqvi won an Emmy Television Academy Award in 2008 for Shame. His other directorial projects include Among the Believers, Pakistan’s Hidden Shame and The Accused: Damned or Devoted?