The Gymnasts of Fisherman Colony

Official Selection, 2026 Tribeca Film Festival
Official Selection, 2026 DMZ International Documentary Film Festival

Teenagers Kiran, Anwara, and Sonia train on a girls’ gymnastics team in Machar Colony, a majority-Bengali fishing settlement considered one of the poorest areas in Karachi. After the girls’ school founder (and human rights lawyer) Tahera Hasan recruits an initially reluctant male coach, the teens must fight for their chance to prove themselves to a country that doesn’t formally recognize their existence.

That there is a girls gymnastics program in “Fisherman Colony” is itself a miracle. Being a girl in Pakistan often means leaving school by the 5th grade and getting married by age 18. And, being Bengali in Pakistan usually means a lack of official ID in spite of birthright citizenship laws, limiting work, school, healthcare, and of course, the chance to compete on the national team.

But, seeing the boys train, a group of girls asked if they could too. As Kiran leads by example and Sonia emerges as a leading gymnast of the region, the girls must change fate for themselves and the people around her. Executive produced by Malala Yousafzai, Mariska Hargitay, and Trish Adlesic, Emmy-winning director Habiba Nosheen’s coming-of-age story of girlhood and defiance shows that gymnastics is not only an after-school activity; it is a way for girls like Sonia, Kiran, and Anwara to take up space, become documented, support their families, be themselves, and find belonging—one somersault at a time.

– Kyraalessandra Reyes