Amara Abbas’s IMPULSE (جذبہ) captures the ethereal, beautiful, and quintessentially Pakistani essence of faith

Faith is more than a set of rituals. It is an unseen yet omnipresent force that lingers in the spaces between moments, shaping both the individual and the collective. It moves like a current through our lives, threading together past and present; solitude and togetherness; the tangible and the divine. Sometimes, faith is a quiet, internal pull that offers solace and direction. Other times, it is in the shared rhythms of existence: in prayer, in the collective breath of a congregation bound by devotion. It is this ineffable essence of faith that Pakistani-American filmmaker Amara Abbas so powerfully distils in her film IMPULSE (جذبہ), an evocative reflection on spirituality, memory, and the ever-present nature of belief.

Amara’s evocative short film explores the omnipresence of faith in Pakistan. Rather than define it, IMPULSE (جذبہ) captures its essence – the quiet assurance of relenting yourself to a purpose. “The film isn’t about defining faith but more about capturing the feeling of being guided, of returning to something familiar and infinite,” Amara tells Dazed MENA. “It’s about believing in the unseen in what can’t always be explained, but is felt.”

IMPULSE (جذبہ) is a 5-minute-long meditation on introspection, nostalgia, and human connection. Amara employs an array of filmmaking techniques to create moments of tenderness that feel deeply authentic. The film moves between rich, slow-motion sequences and long, contemplative cuts, to capture the beauty of Pakistan’s vast landscape and the people who inhabit it. Her lens lingers on everyday details – children in school uniform playing on school grounds, a man tending to the grave of a loved one, a family preparing food, a group of men at the masjid collectively prostrating before God – small but profound glimpses into the lives that make up the country’s spiritual experience.

“I wanted to capture moments in a way that felt true, not just through the big, recognisable traditions but the smaller details of Pakistani culture,” Amara explains. She presents lesser-known yet quintessentially Pakistani customs, such as the children’s game Yassu Panju – one she played growing up – evoking a collective nostalgia and highlighting the interplay between tradition and modernity and how generational traditions endure amidst rapid change. 

The film shifts between moments of silence – people deep in prayer, in quiet communion with God – and moments of communal joy – children playing, a man in conversation mid-shave at a barbershop. Amara captures the ebb and flow of life in Pakistan, the personal and the collective entwined in a rhythm of devotion and togetherness. “As Muslims, we exist in both spaces – the personal journey of the soul and the collective experience that holds us up,” she reflects. “It’s never just one or the other, it’s always both.”

Amara’s film plays with these intertwining contrasts: shadow and light, stillness and motion, intimacy and vastness. There’s a dreamlike quality to the way it unfolds, as if the film itself is suspended in a liminal space between reality and memory, between solitude and community, rooted in the essence of feeling. IMPULSE (جذبہ) is a film defined by feeling – an instinctive recognition of something profound yet elusive. It brings forth a deeply tender and quintessentially Pakistani portrait of faith and spirituality – a portrait that is especially important to engage with now, a couple of weeks after the lives of many in Pakistan were ravaged by Indian bombs and airstrikes. 

As the film’s wistful final shot lingers, it leaves behind a question that captures its spirit: “Have you ever met someone and felt like you’ve known them from somewhere before?” A deeply personal yet collectively relatable reflection on what it is to be Pakistani.