Nargis and Moneeb, a filmmaker-couple from Pakistan recall their introduction to cinema to be not in movie theatres but living rooms filled with DVDs, siblings huddled around cable television, and the gradual arrival of the internet. They grew up in different cities, yet their experiences were remarkably alike — shaped by piecemeal encounters with Bollywood and Hollywood imports. “It wasn’t until college, when we were both studying film, that things shifted,” they note.
That is also when they met each other, and when the discovery of Pakistan’s own literary and cinematic heritage overturned everything they thought they knew. For Nargis, Urdu had always been a compass. She had written scripts, drafted novels, and even worked at Pakistan Television. Moneeb, meanwhile, was steeped in American and French new wave cinema, until Nargis opened the door to Parveen Shakir, Faiz, and other poets.
“When Nargis introduced me to Urdu poetry and literature, it completely flipped my world. Suddenly everything before that felt okay-ish, and for the first time, Urdu felt cool.” From that revelation, 'noonmeeem', their Instagram page was born: "to visualise this goldmine of Pakistani poets for our peers, to make Urdu poetry feel as alive and exciting for them as it had become for us," they share.
Their short-form films are built by montages and narrated by nazms. In one video, Parveen Shakir’s 'I’ll Miss You' becomes a gentle reflection on reassurance, the way love persists through absence and the smallest gestures. In another, a discovered nazm by an unknown author captures a woman’s solitude, her creative defiance in the face of bitterness and external constraint. Elsewhere, the tenderness of early love is rendered with the expansiveness of eternity, or separation is distilled into words that ache with longing.
"Mukhtar Masood is another writer we love; though he wrote mostly non-fiction, his work has influenced how we approach real stories. Poetry has also been a huge inspiration for us, especially poets like Parveen Shakir, Fehmida Riaz, N.M. Rashid, and Sara Shagufta, their language, imagery, and emotions often guide the tone and rhythm of our work."— Nargis & Moneeb
Across these pieces, one finds an insistence that ordinary emotions deserve the dignity of being seen, structured, and given form, something Urdu poetry is known and loved for. They describe how discovering nazms in Islamabad’s libraries — particularly Shakir’s lesser-read works, felt like being recognised. “Though her ghazals had always made us feel something,” they tell us, “it was her nazms that made us feel as if we were seen. It was like finding peace in knowing that someone felt the same, just like us, at some moment in their life.” That desire to translate recognition and resonance into image and sound is what drives their weekly practice of filming, editing, and posting one story at a time.
Nargis and Moneeb are deeply inspired by the progressive Urdu writers’ movement — Ismat Chughtai, Saadat Hasan Manto, and others who unflinchingly wrote about gender, desire, and society. Nargis and Moneeb situate themselves in a visual ode to that continuum, while also drawing from Iranian cinema and the fractured narratives of Partition and Pakistan’s own film history.
They are equally conscious of form: Instagram’s fast-moving feed is, paradoxically, where they test how rhythm, editing, and pacing can still create something that stays with the viewers. The constraint of brevity has sharpened their craft, pushing them to communicate with intent while still holding on to the depth of their source material.
"Cinema wise, Iranian films had a huge impact on us, as did films from across the subcontinent. Growing up, the stories we heard about Partition, East and West Pakistan, and the histories of our own cities, especially Islamabad, continue to inspire the narratives we want to tell. Islamabad itself, with its quiet streets and libraries, is a constant source of creative energy for us."— Nargis & Moneeb
But noonmeeem is only one part of their work. In 2019, they founded the Pakistan Film Society in Islamabad, born out of nothing more elaborate than a borrowed projector, a white cloth, and a decision to screen Abbas Kiarostami’s 'Where Is My Friend’s House?' The response stunned them: over a hundred people showed up. What was supposed to be a modest gathering revealed a hunger long unaddressed in the city.
“From that night onward, we didn’t stop,” they recall. What followed was the growth of a community — over 10,000 registered members today, anchored not only in screenings but also in workshops, networking events, and collaborations with filmmakers from across South Asia. They have partnered with organisations such as Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and Picture Motion, and are now preparing to take the Society to Frankfurt, screening South Asian films for an international audience.
For Nargis and Moneeb, the Pakistan Film Society is as much about cinema as it is about building infrastructure for dialogue. “The conversations at our events go beyond cinema itself,” they note, “they’re about culture, identity, and collaboration. Young people get to discuss films, share their own projects, and even find teams to work with.” The Film Society has evolved into a fragile but vital attempt to cultivate film culture in a country with only 115 screens, prohibitive ticket prices, and a hostile climate for independent filmmakers. They speak candidly about the challenges: nonexistent funding, entrenched lobbies, censorship, and the constant pressure to self-police content in order to avoid backlash.
Yet they refuse to equate scarcity with defeat. If anything, the difficulty has reinforced their belief in grassroots energy. “Until there is real infrastructure,” they say, “the shift will come from platforms like noonmeeem and the Pakistan Film Society. We’re trying to bring back the communal culture of watching films together; to build the ecosystem from the ground up.”
At the heart of all their efforts lies a stubborn love for Islamabad. Where others might have left for cities with larger industries or more resources, they chose to stay and create here. Noonmeeem, with its cinematic montages of nazms, and The Pakistan Film Society, with its gatherings and conversations, form a quiet resistance: to cultural amnesia, to institutional neglect, and to the idea that Pakistan’s stories are anything less than worthy of telling.
Follow noonmeeem here.
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