Ghost School

A Film by Seemab Gul. Starts September 3rd at the fsk. In Urdu with German subtitles.

[Credits] [Tickets & Termine] [Trailer]

A girl cal­led Rabia lives in Pakistan. Her school has just been clo­sed. Rumour has it that the tea­cher is pos­s­es­sed and that the school is cur­sed by jinn. Rabia wants to find out what real­ly happened.

Rabia lives in a vil­la­ge in Pakistan. She is loo­king for­ward to going back to school after the holi­days, but the school has been clo­sed. Rumour has it that the school is cur­sed, that a jinn is said to be wrea­king havoc the­re, and that the tea­cher is pos­s­es­sed. There used to be a head­tea­cher and three tea­chers, but in the end the­re was only this one left.

Rabia tri­es to find out whe­ther her school real­ly is cur­sed, or what else might have hap­pen­ed. Her par­ents can­not help her with this, as neither her father, a fisher­man, nor her mother, who cle­ans the house of a wealt­hy fami­ly, can read or wri­te, and they have litt­le inte­rest in Rabia con­ti­nuing her edu­ca­ti­on. So she asks around the vil­la­ge. The school’s caret­a­ker is curr­ent­ly loo­king for a new job and suspects that the school will remain clo­sed. He shows Rabia the teacher’s house. There she rea­li­ses that the tea­cher, who is just set­ting off for the hos­pi­tal in town, isn’t pos­s­es­sed at all, but ill. He had to lea­ve the school becau­se the lan­dow­ner deman­ded a bri­be from him. The lan­dow­ner, for his part, explains to Rabia that schoo­ling should be a pri­vi­le­ge, not a right – after all, who else would catch fish and work his land? He sends Rabia to the dis­trict chief, who would hire and pay the tea­chers – but a long queue of peti­tio­ners is alre­a­dy wai­ting the­re… Rabia has to come up with a plan.

GHOST SCHOOL is a film by the British-Pakistani film­ma­ker Seemab Gul and, told from the per­spec­ti­ve of a ten-year-old girl, explo­res supers­ti­ti­on, cor­rup­ti­on and the dif­fe­ren­ces bet­ween rich and poor, as well as the lives of boys and girls in Pakistan.

Tom Dorow | indiekino

Credits:

PK, DE, SA 2025, 88 mins, Urdu with German sub­tit­les
Director: Seemab Gul
Cinematography: Zamarin Wahdat
Editing: Alexandra Strauss, Raluca Petre
Starring: Nazualiya Arsalan, Samina Seher, Adnan Shah Tipu, Vajdaan Shah, Muhammad Zamaan

Trailer:

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