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Pakistani filmmakers are having their moment in the sun at film festivals around the world and Umair Bilal has become the latest name to join the roster with his first feature documentary, As Light as Air, set to premiere at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland in August.

The film, set in the spiritually significant city of Sehwan, shows it as a centre of pilgrimage where “pilgrims, wanderers and seekers arrive… carrying grief, hope and longing”.

At documentary’s centre are the rituals of devotion that give the city its spirit — Bilal called it the “town’s own rhythm” — with a special focus on the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar.

The film’s synopsis describes three scenes, with one of an ascetic going door to door to collect alms and being welcomed by the residents, and another of a communal space — the Malang Mach — where different visitors arrive, sleep and eat simultaneously.

The third scene, one of a dhamal, is where the film gets its name from. As the drums beat and the flutes play, the devotees lose themselves in a trance, “leaving them as light as air”.

Bilal explained that he had always been drawn to places where people gather to experience transcendence, partly because his mother was a follower of Sufism and had taken him to shrines when he was little.

“In a world that can feel increasingly suffocating, these spaces offer something close to sanctuary, a temporary release from the weight of everyday life,” he said.

He said he initially approached Sehwan and its shrines as an observer, trying to understand what happens in the city, but found that the “space of spirituality felt beyond rationality”. He said he had to spend time with the townsfolk and surrender himself to the city’s rhythm to grasp it.

The filmmaker is based in Berlin and Abu Dhabi, where he teaches filmmaking practice at New York University. Aside from directing the project, he is also the producer and a cinematographer.

As Light as Air will screen at Locarno during the Semaine de la Critique (Critic’s Week) on August 11 and 12. It is one of just seven documentaries selected for the segment.

The film runs for an hour and five minutes, with an audio track in Urdu and Punjabi. The festival screenings will have English subtitles.

Before Bilal and his film made it to the festival, Pakistani films had a history of screenings at Locarno. In 2003, Sabiha Sumar won the Golden Leopard award with her film Khamosh Pani. More recently, filmmaker Hamza Bangash premiered his short film Dia at the festival in 2018.