Dawn Images

Director Arsalan Majid’s indie thriller Beyond the Wetlands is finally set for release on October 10 on YouTube. The final trailer of the mountain survival film dropped on Saturday, announcing the release date and giving us a glimpse of the movie itself.

The film follows two explorers in the Karakoram mountains as one of them disappears into the vast, freezing wilderness. The other explorer joins locals in a desperate search and rescue mission for his friend as time and hope run scarce.

Shot on site near the world’s second tallest mountain, K2, the movie’s cast is composed largely of mountaineers, mainly from Gilgit-Baltistan’s Hushe Valley. The film, which has been made by AWB Films, stars Jahangir Abdullah, Ishaq Hushevi and Ibrahim Michael. It also features another local hero, mountaineer Muhammad Karim, also known as Little Karim, who has a minor role in the film. All the other actors are new faces.

The location and many cast members’ experience with mountaineering adds a sense of realism to the film and meant the crew didn’t need stunt doubles. It also brought along unique challenges as the mountaineers needed training to act and the team’s equipment began failing in the extreme environment.

The film may appear eerily similar to the tragic last expedition of mountaineer Ali Sadpara, who went missing while summiting K2 in February 2021. He was declared dead after a 13-day search found no trace of him. However, Majid told Images in 2021 that his film was shot over the course of 16 days, from December 2020 to January 2021. He said the team was grief stricken, as many of the cast members had trekked alongside Sadpara and knew him well.

The first teaser for the film was released in February 2021 and a subsequent featurette in February 2022 said the film would release in the summer of that year. This latest trailer announces the impending release date and gives fans something to look forward to.