A festival hit in 17 days of filming

“People always told me never to make a film with children, animals or fire—and on Ghost School, we had all three,” filmmaker Seemab Gul says with a laugh. The crew filmed over the course of just 17 days in two small villages not far from the Pakistani megacity of Karachi. Completing a feature film in such a short period would normally be almost impossible. Yet thanks to meticulous preparation and a crew of around 200 people, filming wrapped after only two and a half weeks in December 2024. It was a true passion project for writer and director Seemab Gul—one that demanded a great deal from her.

Where do Pakistan's "ghost schools" come from?

That was the question Gul began asking herself in 2022 while travelling through Pakistan after the devastating floods. Born and raised in Karachi, she asked friends and relatives for answers—but no one could give her a satisfactory explanation.

“So I decided to search for the answer myself and investigate these 'ghost schools', of which there are now more than 15,000 across Pakistan,” Gul says. In many ways, Gul's own journey mirrors that of the film's young protagonist. After her school suddenly closes, ten-year-old Rabia (played by Nazualiya Arsalan) sets off across her village in search of answers.

The filmmakers shot Rabia's school in a small fishing village near Karachi. Ironically, the village's real school had also been forced to close some time earlier. “The teachers all worked voluntarily and without payment. Whenever someone found a paid job elsewhere, they left. Eventually, the school became a ghost school itself,” Gul explains. The line between reality and fiction begins to blur, making the film's subject all the more powerful.

Filming with a Large Crew

The film is a co-production between Pakistan, Bulgaria and Germany. Alongside the Hamburg-based production company Red Balloon Film, Hamburg Oscar winner Zamarin Wahdat also joined the project as cinematographer. Working on the film was fundamentally different from a shoot in Europe: “My camera department always consisted of at least seven people, while the lighting department sometimes had as many as 40! In Europe, that would be almost unimaginable because of the costs – even on large productions, you might have a crew of six people. But it was the only way we could shoot the film in just under three weeks,” says Wahdat. By European standards, Ghost School would be considered a micro-budget film, but by Pakistani standards it was an expensive production. Around 200 people worked on set in total.

Sun and Food

The team shot most of the film outdoors. For cinematographer Wahdat, the Pakistani sun proved to be a real challenge: “The light was much harsher than in Northern European countries. It wasn't easy to incorporate the sun into the film's visual language. We had to make sure that the actors weren't quite literally swallowed by the sun on camera. In post-production, we adjusted the colour values a little further,” says Wahdat. But besides the sun, the shoot presented many other challenges: large crews, language barriers, long journeys to remote villages with poor infrastructure – and, of course, the food. “For Seemab, the food wasn't a problem because she's from Karachi. But if you don't want to eat rice with water every day and decide to try the local specialities, a European stomach eventually reaches its limits. I even ended up in hospital one day. Luckily, they know how to get tourists back on their feet quickly,” says Zamarin Wahdat with a laugh.

For Seemab Gul, the challenges were of a different nature. When production began, there were hardly any financing partners attached to the project. “I invested my savings in the film. If anything had gone wrong, I would have been faced with a huge bill the very next day and probably cried myself to sleep,” says Gul. In addition, several foreign ministries advise against travelling to the Karachi region. Ensuring the safety and well-being of everyone involved therefore required particularly careful preparation and planning.

Cinema and Festivals

“Ghost School” celebrated its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. In Germany, the film screened this year in the Generation section of the Berlinale, where it was particularly well received by young audiences. “I thought we'd made a small arthouse film. But at the Berlinale, and later at other festivals, children showed the film so much love and asked so many questions. We almost felt like little rock stars,” says Gul. When Ghost School opens in German cinemas on 3 September, it is therefore likely that quite a few school classes will also make their way to the cinema.