{"id":20959,"date":"2026-07-29T13:05:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T08:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=20959"},"modified":"2026-07-29T13:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T08:05:13","slug":"as-light-as-air-doc-film-trailer-collective-ecstasy-in-pakistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=20959","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;As Light as Air&#8217; Doc Film Trailer: Collective Ecstasy in Pakistan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<em>As Light as Air<\/em> is the title of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/lali-film-trailer-berlin-2026-first-pakistan-movie-1236493816\/\">Pakistani filmmaker<\/a> Umair Bilal\u2019s feature debut, which will world premiere on Aug. 11 in the Critics\u2019 Weeks lineup of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/locarno-film-festival-poster-2026-cindy-sherman-1236579961\/\">79th edition<\/a> of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/2026-locarno-film-festival-program-unveiled-hong-sang-soo-1236641562\/\">Locarno Film Festival<\/a> in Switzerland.\u00a0But things are not only light but also hypnotic in the cinematic world that the experimental documentary invites people into.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAfter all, it dives into spiritual life in Sehwan, Pakistan, a Sufi city \u201cshaped by pilgrimage, folklore and collective ecstasy,\u201d as the press notes highlight. Sufism is the major expression of mysticism in Islam.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cEvery day, pilgrims, wanderers, and seekers arrive in a Sufi town carrying grief, hope, and longing,\u201d reads a synopsis on the festival\u2019s website. \u201cDrawn together by music and devotion, they surrender themselves to a shared state of trance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tBilai also produced the film and handled cinematography together with Konstantin Stell. The editor is Siddhant Sarin, while Sui Sofie Heinz and YANT are responsible for the music. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cMy connection to the city of Sehwan is personal. My mother followed Sufism and took me to shrines when I was a child, so returning years later carried a distant sense of familiarity,\u201d Bilai shares in a director\u2019s statement. \u201cI was drawn to such places, where people gather to experience states that feel transcendental. In a world that can feel increasingly suffocating, these spaces offer something close to sanctuary, a temporary release from the weight of everyday life.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tWhen he first arrived to film, he approached Sehwan as \u201can observer, trying to understand the repetitive patterns and rituals that have been followed for centuries,\u201d the filmmaker highlights. \u201cBut the space of spirituality felt beyond rationality. By spending long hours with the inhabitants of Sehwan, and allowing myself to move at the town\u2019s own rhythm, I began to let go of that need to understand everything, and instead let myself feel the space. The more I surrendered, the more it revealed itself. Gradually, I became part of its rhythm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<em>THR<\/em> can now reveal the trailer for the film. Watch it below to get a first sense of that meditative and trance-like quality of <em>As Light as Air<\/em>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo\">\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"AS LIGHT AS AIR by Umair Bilal - Official Trailer\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/1207700629?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Light as Air is the title of Pakistani filmmaker Umair Bilal\u2019s feature debut, which will world premiere on Aug. 11 in the Critics\u2019 Weeks lineup of the 79th edition of the\u00a0Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland.\u00a0But things are not only light but also hypnotic in the cinematic world that the experimental documentary invites people into&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/As-Light-as-Air.jpg?w=969&h=545&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}