Relatively early in “Hanging By a Wire,” Sumaira Khan, a senior correspondent for Sanaa TV, recalls receiving a text about an unfolding incident in Battangram, the remote village in the remote Allai valley of Pakistan where she grew up amidst the Himalayas that requires a cable car to transport children to school. Feeling the pull of home, she’d be inclined to do a report from the region even from the limited details she’s received about the eight people stranded in a cable car suspended in mid-air, but as she explains, any stories about rural communities are always “a bit harder to get into the limelight,” though she would soon see something else that would make the already newsworthy event actually something that her bosses might want to broadcast — footage from a local drone operator that was buzzing around that could bring it to audiences. “Seeing them going up there was both terrifying and extraordinary,” she exclaims, perhaps obvious when the evidence is right there in front of you, but also confirming her point that it was the footage that made people take notice.
It should put viewers slightly more on edge than they already will be in “Hanging by a Wire” when it is bound to stand out for the same reasons, a taut nonfiction thriller about an incredible story that might go overlooked without its “wow” factor. With the benefit of hindsight on the 2023 incident, director Mohammed Ali Naqvi goes a step further than anyone else could on the day, seamlessly blending the drone footage with tasteful recreations involving those who came out to rescue the six students and two adults that were onboard the cable car. But the film impresses as much in considering the attention paid generally to such an area as actually grabbing it when the response to the crisis requires coordination between local and national entities and both trust and a sense of urgency takes as much work to foster as ultimately it will to bring the stranded to safety.
Running a tight 77 minutes, the film isn’t only gripping because it embraces a ticking clock structure where the longer the rescue stretches out, the more dangerous it becomes with lower visibility at night, but the organic introduction of new characters throughout as the effort grows and grows to involve so many. Of particular interest are the naturally charismatic daredevils Shahib Khan, a local who is called upon for any accident he hears of in the community and works with the limited means available to him, and Ali Swati, a bodybuilder and zipliner brought in by the national army to reach the students, who have to find ways to cooperate though the idea of being hailed as a hero gets their competitive juices flowing, as does being from wildly different backgrounds. The film may show everyone rallying around a common cause, but actively brings up how disconnects have formed as rural areas are neglected, leading to such a potential catastrophe in the first place, and it can seem as if the dangling cable car is indicative of the precarious situation they face even in times of relative calm. For all the obstacles overcome in remarkable ways in “Hanging by a Wire,” getting people to care outside of Battangram emerges as one of the most difficult of all, but the film itself has no such trouble.
“Hanging By a Wire” will screen again at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23rd at 8:50 pm at the Megaplex Redstone, January 24th at the Broadway Centre Cinemas in Salt Lake City, January 29th at 5:20 pm at the Megaplex Redstone and January 30th at 2:45 pm at the Yarrow Theatre. It will also be available to watch virtually via the Sundance online platform from January 29th through February 1st.