Hanging By a Wire review – cable car rescue documentary dangles viewers on the edge of disaster

The extraordinary fate of eight people trapped above a chasm in Pakistan makes for a tense, skilfully assembled survival story with unexpected flashes of comedy Survival documentaries are a weird little genre of nonfiction film-making that recount the stories of accidents and natural catastrophes – and more often than not, the daring rescues of people caught up in them. Eyewitnesses and the loved ones of those endangered are top of the interview list, to keep the sense of danger and emotional...

By Leslie Felperin