JEDDAH: Ghost School, the only Pakistani feature film, screened at the Red Sea International Film Festival, sheds light on the issue of ghost schools and female education in Pakistan.

It’s the debut film of Seemab Gul who has many feathers in her cap for being the director, scriptwriter as well as the producer of her feature. She had started her career as a short films and documentary filmmaker initially but moved on to make a feature. The project of the film, set in a fishing village in the suburb of Karachi, started as a documentary which she wanted to make but later it expanded to the feature film.

The movie takes on the serious subject of female education and ghost schools in rural areas from the point of view of a girl child, Rabia, immaculately played by Nazualiya Arsalan who is baffled by the closure of her school for being haunted. She is told that it was haunted and a djinn is having its hold over it, an excuse used by the teacher to leave the village. The girl is too young to understand any such supernatural phenomenon but asks questions about it. She embarks on resolving the confusion on her own and tries to get answers behind the myth being exploited by the corrupt system, led by the village elder.

Nazualiya stands out in the film with her perfect acting skills. The director has also used the non-actors, just like Iranian film-makers, and the jinn story adds to the element of the suspension of disbelief without creating any horror effect.

Director Seemab Gul speaks about film-making challenges

Ghost School is Seemab Gul’s first feature but she had started this journey with Haven of Hope, another feature that was postponed with different producers “disappearing and not doing their jobs properly”. At this, Seemab decided to herself become the producer, writer and director.

Earlier, the director has done short films, a half-hour documentary film on Zahida, the first Pakistani taxi driver, for Aljazeera. But she was trained in high-end fiction and features.

Ghost School is likely to hit Pakistani cinemas in summer.

The director’s lens

After facing multiple challenges and slow pace of work caused by producers regarding Haven of Hope, Seemab Gul decided to retaliate and hit back with a new film project.

“I decided to borrow the money from friends and family and shoot the film. I wrote it (Ghost School) in 10 weeks and shot it in two weeks. I started in August and finished it in May. I wanted to prove to the people that I can make a film on my own.”

She said she shot Ghost School at Chashma Goth and another village on the outskirts of Karachi.

The film premiered in Toronto. According to her, the film tested all the skills she had learnt at London Film School. “I am still in debt, I borrowed from my post-production crew, I owe money to my editor.”

Seemab has been living in London but her family home is in Karachi. In the UK, she had exposure to independent cinema from around the world, especially Iranian films. “I found Iranian culture more similar to Pakistani culture compared to India despite having similar language and food. Iranian art is embedded in tragedy where Indian art is embedded in singing, dance and celebration. I think our art, history and poetry are closer to indulging in tragedy and our drama also indulges in tragedy. I found this ama zing parallel and I dreamed of making Iranian style films about the tragedy and struggle of life and women in Pakistan.”

Asked why she returned to the Pakistani subject despite having international exposure and life in the West, Seemab called it a tragedy that second and third generations of Pakistani immigrants abroad don’t have an inkling of their own heritage, culture and family, all they know is about food and language.

She says she has a strong foundation as she grew up in Karachi and went to school in Karachi and Islamabad, while her family comes from Jhelum and speaks Pothohari.

“In London, there is another problem, I am treated as just an immigrant, a foreigner, a token used for tick-boxing, I did not want to be side lined.”

Seemab’s choice of cinema is arthouse and independent and she does not want go mainstream yet though she loves Bollywood and musicals.

While she faced multiple challenges in the past, Ghost School brought her recognition as a film-maker. Haven of Hope is completely financed by 11 different sources and one of them is Red Sea Film Foundation. Haven of Hope is a co-production of five countries.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2025