pakistani documentary selected
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Pakistani documentary selected for Locarno Film Festival

ByJustpaste.in

Pakistan’s presence on the international film festival circuit has grown significantly in recent years, and the latest milestone arrives in the form of a debut documentary that will carry the spirit of Sehwan to one of Europe’s most prestigious stages.
Filmmaker Umair Bilal’s debut feature documentary As Light as Air has been selected for the 79th Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, where it will have its world premiere in August. The selection places Pakistani independent cinema on a platform that celebrates outstanding documentary filmmaking from around the world, and represents another meaningful step in the growing global recognition of Pakistan’s independent film movement.
The film is set in Sehwan, the historic Sufi town in Sindh that is home to the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, one of Pakistan’s most revered spiritual sites. The documentary explores the lives of the pilgrims, wanderers and spiritual seekers who travel to Sehwan carrying grief, longing and hope, drawn by the promise of solace that the shrine and its rituals have offered for centuries. At the centre of the film is the practice of dhamaal, the devotional dance performed at the shrine, which Bilal has described as the heartbeat of Sehwan. Through the rhythm of the music, the movement of the devotees and the atmosphere of collective faith, the documentary offers an intimate and immersive portrait of a spiritual world that few outside Pakistan have encountered directly.
As Light as Air has been selected for the Semaine de la Critique section of the Locarno festival, a dedicated showcase for outstanding documentary filmmaking that consistently attracts significant attention from international distributors and critics.
The 79th Locarno Film Festival runs from August 5 to 15 and will present 103 world premieres this year across its various sections, including international competition, the Piazza Grande outdoor screenings and documentary showcases. The programme features new work by internationally acclaimed filmmakers including Hong Sangsoo, Denis Cote and Maria Back. The festival will also honour celebrated American director James Gray with its Career Leopard award, one of the most prestigious recognitions the festival offers to filmmakers who have made an enduring contribution to cinema.
Festival organisers have described this year’s edition as reflecting a world shaped by conflict while celebrating the enduring power of cinema to connect audiences across cultures and borders. Against that backdrop, a documentary rooted in Pakistan’s Sufi traditions and set in one of the country’s most spiritually significant towns offers something genuinely distinctive, a window into a world of devotion, music and collective belonging that carries a universality capable of reaching audiences with no prior connection to its cultural context.
For Umair Bilal, the Locarno selection is a remarkable achievement for a debut feature, and for Pakistani cinema more broadly it signals that stories told with authenticity and artistic conviction about the country’s own cultural heritage can find a home on the world stage.

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