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That high-altitude action sequence in Where Eagles Dare has sudden new competition for the most knuckle-whitening cable-car moment in cinema.
In April 2023, in the Pakistan province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a group of teenagers, travelling to school by cable car across a valley in the Himalayan foothills, were left dangling 900 feet up when two of the three cables above them abruptly snapped. The obstacles facing would-be rescuers were formidable: swirling cross winds, desperate family members, choking crowds of locals on either side of the ravine. Oh, and the prospect that the third cable could give way at any moment.
Directed by Pakistani filmmaker Mohammed Ali Naqvi, this terrifically tense documentary tells the story of that nightmare commute, using a wealth of media and cameraphone footage, plus interviews and reenactments with the people involved, to piece together the 12 or so hours of bedlam that followed.
The cable car, hanging at a canted angle like a frame from a horror movie, is a heart-in-mouth sight that Naqvi never cuts away from for long. Alerted to the unfolding story, the Pakistani media and then international networks arrived to capture the rescue efforts. Drone footage zooms in on the calm-looking boys inside the gondola and you wonder how they seem so cool when their lives are hanging in the balance.
The ticking-clock tension will leave you breathless
Naqvi assembles all the key figures, from the determined police chief and broadcast journalist who were first on the scene – the only women in a story where the teens’ mums are nowhere to be seen – and the military man whose choppers make an improvised first rescue attempt. But most eye-catching are the two local zipline specialists who provide heroic assistance. One is a posturing gym-owner with all the gear; the other is from a poorer background. No prizes for guessing who gets sidelined.
There’s a stark contrast to be made with Man on Wire, the Oscar-winning documentary about French funambulist Philippe Petit’s Twin Towers walk. For all his mad daring, Petit was a hobbyist on the highwire; these Pakistani schoolkids are up there because they have to be. The state has failed them, turning a simple quest for education into something out of Cliffhanger. Naqvi bedrocks his doc with a sense of social injustice but ultimately chooses thrills over explicit social commentary. The ticking-clock tension will leave you breathless.
In cinemas worldwide Fri Aug 28.