Filmmakers Mahnoor Batool, Shahnawaz Khan’s documentary portrays life in Parachinar and other conflict-hit areas
Pakistani filmmakers Mahnoor Batool and Shahnawaz Ahmed Khan’s The Emergency Exit secured the “Spirit of Doc Lab” award at the Kathmandu Doc Lab. Having the prestige of being the only Pakistani film to earn an award this year at the festival.
The Emergency Exit is a film of artistic courage that introduces a vital, raw cinematic language that completely redefines how we view communities caught in the crosshairs of geopolitical conflict.
For decades, global cinema has treated Pakistan’s northwestern border regions, specifically war-weary towns like Parachinar, through a cold, detached lens.
Screengrab from Mahnoorbatool/Instagram
To mainstream news and big-budget international features, these areas are reduced to a land of violence, places that are defined only by military statistics, geopolitical strategy, or tragedy. As natives of Parachinar, Mahnoor and Shahnawaz actively speak against this external perspective.
So does their film, The Emergency Exit, which shifts the camera away from the typical style of cinematography. Instead, it grounds the story in the quiet, delicate lives of everyday tasks: the routines of families, the laughter shared over tea, the resilience of relationships, and the subtle ways a community preserves its humanity under the constant shadow of uncertainty.
The emotional centre of the film is captured perfectly in its haunting teaser, where a young boy is asked why he isn’t afraid of the violence surrounding his home. His response carries the crushing weight of a child forced to grow up too soon: “If a missile comes, it will come. And if it hits this house, then what? At most, we will die.”
What makes The Emergency Exit stand out globally is how it approaches non-fiction storytelling. Under the mentorship of boundary-pushing regional filmmakers, Pakistan’s Anam Abbas, the film skips standard documentary clichés in favour of deep talks.
By taking home one of the top four prizes in a highly competitive pool of South Asian films from India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh, The Emergency Exit achieved something bigger than temporary festival stories. It proves that the most powerful way to counter a narrative such as this is through hyper-local, unapologetic artistic truth.
Mahnoor and Shahnawaz have built a cinematic brilliance for the people of Parachinar, one that ensures their lives are remembered not by the violence that surrounded them, but by the quiet, defiant dignity with which they lived.
