“We had no real plan except to head north into the mountains.” Directed by Georgia Merton and Isobel Ewing, ‘Inshallah’ is a short film (“the perfect length for a cup of tea” Georgia says) about bike packing through mountainous northern Pakistan.
The two ended up cycling, and sometimes hitching with bikes lashed to the roof, in Pakistan after a visa issue scuppered their original plan to go to India. Along the way, they encountered big climbs, gentle snowfalls, more than a few sketchy roads with alarming drop-offs, mechanical issues, and a bounty of beautiful food generously shared.
The film is a celebration of the kind of travel that doesn’t involve Google-assisted pre-voyage research, and that approaches humanity with trust. “Do you think we are terrorists?” one driver asks. The answer is no, but behind it is an acknowledgement of how outsiders tend to see countries like Pakistan, and why so many people have asked Georgia and Isobel if they were scared.
As it turns out, the main safety issues that arose involved a lack of familiarity with bike maintenance (the two are refreshingly open about this in the film), and Georgia’s tendency to hit the downhills at pace.
The winner of the Best Self-Filmed film category at the 2024 New Zealand Mountain Film Festival, ‘Inshallah’ is a beautifully-framed reminder of how cycling is a barrier breaker that can open you to a place and to the people. Watch it for free on YouTube. – LW
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