Sheher (The City) is a coming of age crime drama set in present day Lahore, Pakistan. The film revolves around Babar, 19, who is forced to escape from rural Panjab to Lahore when he fatally injures his abusive uncle while trying to protect his ten year old sister.

It is through Babar’s eyes that we are introduced to the complex and socially polarized city of Lahore trying to come to grips with power outages, unemployment, corruption and sporadic threats of terrorism.

Babar is introduced to this new tumultuous world at his employer Mariam’s house, a widowed upper-middle class jewelry designer in her early thirties struggling to establish herself. Driven by the need to bring his sister to the city and aided by his older cousin Saif, a crafty and seasoned city dweller, Babar tries hard to make headway in his new unfamiliar surroundings. Baffled by Tasneem, Mariam’s live-in transgender housekeeper and intrigued by the possibility of a romance with Fatima, Mariam’s coquettish teenaged laundry girl, Babar naively bites off more than he can chew when he tries to stretch his meager salary to rent a space in the city, send money back to take care of his sister in the village, and pay for the extravagances of his new romance all at once.

Babar’s crumbling plans are thrown into further disarray when he is accused of theft by Mariam. Embittered by his rough treatment at the hands of the police and enraged at having been wrongfully accused, Babar loses faith in the professional and personal relationships he has made in Lahore. After being defrauded of the rented space he has been trying to secure, Babar is thrown into a panic when he finds out that he must bring his sister over to the city immediately.

Pushed into this corner and enticed by a quick solution to his financial woes, Babar makes a dubious decision that sets him on a dangerous path. Pulled in opposite directions by an unlikely bond formed with the struggling Mariam and a need for recompense and personal justice, Babar’s character is tested when he is forced to choose between his loyalty to Saif and what he knows is the right thing to do.

At the heart of Sheher lies the intriguing story of a young man trying to come to terms with the insurmountable odds of surviving in an ancient and unforgiving city. This window into Babar’s life gives us a glimpse into the diverse lives of millions of Pakistanis, the rich social and cultural milieu that defines their identity and the troubling circumstances that they face every day as they head into an uncertain future.