{
  "id": 376630,
  "title": "Locarno Sufi Trance Doc ‘As Light as Air’ Director Umair Bilal on Surrendering to a Pakistani Shrine Town: ‘I Became Part of Its Rhythm’",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/09/locarno-sufi-trance-doc-as-light-as-air-director-umair-bilal-on",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-08-09T13:06:21.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Variety",
    "slug": "variety",
    "url": "https://variety.com/2026/film/festivals/sufi-trance-as-light-as-air-locarno-1236826269/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Umair Bilal spent months in Sehwan, Pakistan, trying to direct a documentary. Then he gave up. “Every time I tried to impose that logic onto Sehwan, it felt like I was working against the place rather than with it,” the Pakistani filmmaker tells Variety of his debut feature, “As Light as Air,” which premieres in […]",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}