‘Gumm’ brings slasher genre to Pakistan

Sami Khan in ‘Gumm’. This year’s sleeper hit, Cake, seems to have encouraged filmmakers to experiment with different genres. Ammar Lasani and Kanza Zia’s soon-tobe-released feature, Gumm, boasts elements traditionally associated with slasher films, with a dash of survival stories. The husband-and-wife duo studied together at the New York Film Academy before they began work on this small-budget fare. Today, they have already screened the film at different international film festivals including India’s Aab International Film Festival (AIFF) and Madrid’s MIFF where it won critical acclaim.

Gumm is an indie project, produced by Shakeel Anjum, and stars Sami Khan and Shamoon Abbasi in the lead. Khan’s portrayal of a man trapped in his car in a forest in the dead of the night and fighting for survival, has already won him the best actor trophy at two different film festivals. The film is being released commercially by the IMGC.