Joyous Tribeca Doc ‘Song of Lahore’ Shows How Pakistani Music Came Back From the Dead

Tribeca 2015: The country’s classical music was almost killed by Islamic repression, but it came alive onscreen and at the festival

Song of Lahore

Lots of film festivals love music documentaries, which tend to attract enthusiastic crowds and frequently win audience awards. And the Tribeca Film Festival has long embraced the genre, with this year’s entries including “In My Father’s House,” “Orion: The Man Who Would Be King,” “As I Am: The Life and Times of DJ AM” and “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck.”

But it’s unlikely any other music doc could have the same combination of rousing music, emotional clout and social and political import as “Song of Lahore,” a joyous and riveting film that premiered over the weekend at Tribeca.

Directed by Andy Schocken and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, the film about Pakistani music tells a fascinating story and mixes glorious artistry with a background that has real resonance in a world in which fundamentalist Islam is on the march.

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