When listening turns into living

In a stark and unsettling cinematic reflection on conflict's unseen consequences, filmmaker Khalid Hassan Khan's latest short 'Fury on the Shortwave' turns its gaze away from battlefields towards the quieter, more insidious toll of war on the human psyche and survival.

'Fury on the Shortwave', an anti-war film written, directed and produced by Khan, offers a darkly satirical look at how war narratives infiltrate everyday life through media. The film, carrying the tagline "War Amplified, Hunger Intensified", stars veteran theatre artist Wali Shaikh.

Set within the confines of a city paralysed by regional tensions, the film follows a solitary man, played by Shaikh, whose world shrinks as electricity fails and cable television disappears into silence. His only remaining link to the outside world is a shortwave radio.

What begins as a mundane exercise in passing time soon evolves into something darker. The man becomes absorbed in a steady stream of war updates, speculative economic chatter and propaganda-laden broadcasts, gradually responding with biting, almost cynical commentary of his own.

As the tone of these transmissions grows increasingly sensational, so does his engagement. He begins to mirror the voices he hears, slipping into imitation until he effectively becomes an echo chamber - a human extension of the very noise he once observed.

Yet the film's most piercing turn lies in its quiet realisation. The distant war he has consumed as sound and spectacle edges closer, no longer abstract, as hunger and illness begin to define his immediate reality, collapsing the divide between listener and victim.

Through its minimalist setting and restrained yet pointed dialogue, 'Fury on the Shortwave' interrogates how individuals internalise conflict narratives, often normalising violence, exploitation and crisis through passive consumption rather than direct experience.

Khan, an award-winning filmmaker with over 26 international honours and screenings at more than 100 global festivals, continues his signature approach of blending political satire with stripped-down storytelling, probing how technology, media and power subtly reshape perception during periods of sustained instability.

A graduate from New York Film Academy, Los Angeles, United States. Khalid is an award-winning filmmaker who has directed and produced documentaries, shorts and feature films across different genres. He has won many prestigious international awards. He believes in telling untold stories of the underprivileged segments of society who have been overlooked so far. With twenty plus international awards and well over fifty runs in the global film festivals; he believes that lights, camera and action are meaningless without conveying human emotions.