EXCLUSIVE: On a Tuesday morning in 2023, a group of kids set off for school, climbing into a makeshift cable car for the journey across a mountain
EXCLUSIVE: On a Tuesday morning in 2023, a group of kids set off for school, climbing into a makeshift cable car for the journey across a mountain pass in northwest Pakistan. What happened next would make headlines around the world.
Suddenly, 900 feet above the ground, two cables snapped, putting the teenagers in mortal danger. The story of the dramatic attempt to rescue the kids and two adults trapped in the cable car will be told in a up-to-date documentary now in production from EverWonder Studio and Mindhouse Productions. Emmy-nominated director Mohammed Ali Naqvi will preview exclusive footage from Hanging By a Wire at Cannes Doc Week, part of the Marché du Film.
A helicopter aids in the rescue of stranded kids stranded on a dangling cable car
AFP via Getty Images
“Hanging By A Wire will take viewers on an edge-of-your-seat journey through the harrowing 15+ hour rescue,” notes a release, “with never before seen footage capturing multiple angles – which required helicopters, ziplines, and heroic efforts – plus first-hand accounts from the first responders and survivors who lived to tell their story.”
Naqvi’s credits include Netflix’s Turning Point, Showtime’s Shame, Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror, and The Accused: Damned or Devoted?, the latter a 2023 Primetime Emmy nominee for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking.
“I grew up devouring 90s action thrillers, and with Hanging By A Wire we’re giving that white-knuckle rush a documentary backbone,” Naqvi said in a statement. “Every frame is real—six schoolboys, 900 feet in the air, a rescue clock ticking down— and that authenticity makes the stakes soar. This film will show that true stories can play just as big as any blockbuster.”
Jon Adler, executive producer, Head of Talent & Content Development at EverWonder Studio, commented, “Every student, parent, and community member can imagine the fear of their loved ones’ everyday journey turned into a life and death situation, but nothing compares to the sheer scale and suspense of this story. The rescue was captured from every angle — inside the cable car, from drones, the helicopter, and the crowd below. It’s a real-time thriller built from footage shot moment by moment as it unfolded.”
The production marks the first international documentary for EverWonder, the independent content studio led by Ian Orefice and backed by Jeff Zucker’s RedBird IMI. It’s also groundbreaking for Mindhouse, the award-winning U.K. independent production company.
“I can’t think of a more exciting project for Mindhouse to have taken on as our first independently financed documentary feature as we expand our international slate,” said Aloke Devichand, Head of Documentaries, Mindhouse Productions. We believe the mind blowing Himalayan landscapes, nerve-wracking time pressures and unlikely alliance that comes together in a truly unsafe rescue attempt will captivate audiences. It’s a real life cliffhanger that we’ve loved working on with Mo, Bilal and the EverWonder team.”
Hanging By a Wire is being produced by Naqvi and Bilal Sami (Disney+/Hulu’s David Blaine – Do Not Attempt, Laal Kabootar / The Red Pigeon). The inherent drama of the story recalls another cinematic nail biter, The Rescue, Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s documentary about the effort to save kids stranded in a flooded cave in Thailand (that story was also turned into a Ron Howard narrative film called Thirteen Lives).
The kids stranded in the cable car didn’t think they would surive. “It felt like we were standing right at the edge of our own graves,” one of them told the BBC. “We had little to no hope that we could be saved.”
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