Joyland is a 2022 Urdu and Punjabi-language Pakistani drama film written, directed and co-edited by Saim Sadiq in his feature directorial debut. The film stars Ali Junejo, Rasti Farooq, Alina Khan, Sarwat Gilani, and Salmaan Peerzada.
Set in inner-city Lahore, Joyland centers around the middle-class Rana family, headed by an elder patriarch (Peerzada) who yearns for the birth of a grandson. He forces his daughter-in-law Mumtaz (Farooq) to quit her job after Haider (Junejo), his youngest son and her husband, finds work at an erotic dance theater. However, complications arise when Haider becomes infatuated with Biba (Khan), a transgender dancer.
Joyland had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival on 23 May 2022, becoming the first Pakistani film to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. It screened in the Un Certain Regard section, where it competed for the Caméra d’Or. The film received a standing ovation after its screening and won the festival’s Jury Prize, as well as the Queer Palm prize for best LGBTQ-themed film.
It was initially banned for theatrical release in Pakistan and was approved for release after minor cuts. It premiered domestically on 18 November 2022 and received generally positive reviews from critics.
Joyland was selected as the Pakistani entry for Best International Feature Film at 95th Academy Awards. On 21 December 2022, it became the first Pakistani film to be shortlisted in the category.
Plot
In inner-city Lahore, Amanullah is the elder patriarch of the middle-class Rana family. His younger son, Haider, has spent years unemployed, while Haider’s wife, Mumtaz, works as an aesthetician at a salon. Haider’s friend Qaiser helps Haider secure a job as a backup dancer at an erotic dance theater, where he is to perform for Biba, a transgender dancer. Haider had previously seen a bloodied Biba at a hospital, when Haider’s sister-in-law Nucchi was giving birth to a fourth granddaughter. Upon learning that Haider has found work, Amanullah—who wishes for a grandson—orders Mumtaz to quit her job, to her dismay.
Haider joins his fellow backup dancers for rehearsals with Biba, but demonstrates little experience with dancing. After the rehearsal, Haider accompanies Biba to the theater, where he witnesses an argument between Biba and the theater manager over the affordability of a standee of Biba. Biba and Haider place an order for the standee at a shop. At the Rana household, Mumtaz and Nucchi install an air conditioner. That night, while Biba attends an event at which she is groped by a man, Haider goes to pick up the standee. Unable to store it at the theater, Haider brings the standee home, and he and Mumtaz place it on the roof.
The next morning, Fayyaz, a widow and family friend, notices the standee on the roof and alerts Amanullah. Fayyaz and Amanullah chide Haider and the standee as shameful. At another rehearsal, Haider begins to show improvement in his dancing. That night, Biba and Haider go to Biba’s home, where she explains her bloodied appearance at the hospital—the blood belonged to another transgender woman, Tina, who was shot and killed by a man in front of Biba. Haider and Biba talk about the ocean, and Haider says that he has never been outside Lahore. They nearly kiss, but Haider goes home. In bed with Mumtaz, Haider asks her about the ocean, and Mumtaz suggest they visit it someday. Haider says he cannot sleep; he returns to Biba, and the two passionately kiss.
On another night, Mumtaz and Nucchi go to an amusement park called Joyland, while Haider and the other backup dancers prepare to perform alongside Biba. When the electricity at the theater unexpectedly shuts off, Haider convinces Biba and the other dancers to go through with their performance until the lights come back on; their routine proves a success with the audience. Later that night, Nucchi’s husband Saleem catches Mumtaz masturbating to another man, who is himself masturbating in an alley visible from her bathroom window. The next morning, Fayyaz’s son scolds the Rana family, as Fayyaz spent the previous night in Amanullah’s company, a fact her son considers disgraceful.
Mumtaz and Nucchi visit a doctor and learn that Mumtaz is pregnant with a boy. Mumtaz tells Nucchi that she feels like “running away”, but dismisses her own statement as a joke. At the theater, Qaiser and the other backup dancers ask Haider probing questions about Biba’s genitals, resulting in Biba angrily rebuking them. Later, Biba and Haider prepare to have sex, but when Haider tries to position himself as a receptive partner, Biba furiously kicks him out and tells him not to return to her nor the theater. Haider returns home and cries when Mumtaz tells him that they are expecting a son.
After a party for Amanullah’s 70th birthday, Mumtaz retrieves a hidden bottle from the tank of a bathroom toilet and drinks from it. Mumtaz is later found dead. Family, neighbors and others—including Biba—gather and pray as her body is washed, shrouded, and taken away for burial. After the funeral, Haider becomes angry at Saleem when Saleem maligns Mumtaz for killing herself and her unborn son. Nucchi chastises Saleem and says that Mumtaz’s death is the fault of the entire family. In the past, an as-yet-unmarried Haider visits Mumtaz at her home, and asks her, in spite of their marriage being arranged, if she herself wants to marry him; they mutually agree to marry. In the present, Haider leaves Lahore to visit the ocean, and wades out into the water.
Cast
- Ali Junejo as Haider
- Rasti Farooq as Mumtaz
- Alina Khan as Biba
- Sarwat Gilani as Nucchi
- Salmaan Peerzada as Rana Amanullah
- Sohail Sameer as Saleem
- Sania Saeed as Fayyaz
Release
Premiere and festival screenings
Joyland had its world premiere at the 75th Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section on 23 May 2022. Film Constellation, a U.K. and France-based sales firm, has taken up the international rights for the film, which will be shared with WME Independent for representation in North America. French rights of the film were acquired by Condor.
The film was invited at 2022 Toronto International Film Festival in the “Special Presentations” section and was screened on 8 September 2022. It was also selected as part of the 27th Busan International Film Festival’s “A Window on Asian Cinema” section, screening on 6 October 2022. Later in December, it was invited to the 28th Kolkata International Film Festival and was screened on 18 December 2022. In the same month, it was also invited to “Spotlight” section of 2023 Sundance Film Festival, held from 19 to 29 January 2023.
Joyland did not screen at the International Film Festival of Kerala, one of India’s most respected film festivals. In a report for Firstpost, journalist Anna M. M. Vetticad revealed that the film was rejected by the artistic director of the festival, Deepika Suseelan, who said: “There are actually so many films dealing with the same [sic], particularly transgender if we take out, you know there is lesbian, gay, different segments … For me personally, I liked Paloma more, and for me, Joyland was taking too much time.” Vetticad wrote: “It is inexcusable … for an individual in such a critical position to consider their personal opinion reason enough to reject such a film despite its cultural and socio-political significance; to be unaware of that significance and equally unaware of audience interest in it despite the crowds it has drawn at festivals across the world.”
Theatrical release and censorship
Joyland was scheduled to be released in Pakistan on 18 November 2022. Despite the censor board having granted the film a censor certificate in August, Pakistan’s Ministry of Information & Broadcasting was announced to have banned the film’s domestic release in November, citing Pakistan’s Motion Picture Ordinance of 1979 and written complaints about the film. Additionally, Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan of the Jamaat-e-Islami political party accused the film of being “against Pakistani values”, stating that, “Glamourising transgenders in Pakistan, as well as their love affairs, is a direct attack on our beliefs.”
The ban was met with harsh criticism, with the hashtag #ReleaseJoyland making rounds on social media. In an Instagram post, director Saim Sadiq wrote that he and his team were “gutted” by the ban and said it was, “absolutely unconstitutional and illegal.” Alina Khan, the actress playing the protagonist of the film, said, “There’s nothing against Islam and I don’t understand how Islam can get endangered by mere films.” In a written defense published in Variety, Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who is also an executive producer of the film, stated
Joyland is not activism posing as art; it doesn’t argue for a particular point of view or issue a call to action. The film treats each character with compassion, from the ageing grandfather imposing his will on his family to the young wife who wants more than the men around her are willing to give. It’s a film about the ways in which patriarchy hurts everyone — men, women and children. It’s a film about the healing powers of female friendship and solidarity. It’s a film about the costs of ignoring our own dreams to conform to society around us. Joyland is also a love letter to Pakistan, to its culture, food, fashion and, most of all, its people. How tragic that a film created by and for Pakistanis is now banned from our screens because of claims that it does not “represent our way of life” or “portrays a negative image of our country.” The opposite is true — the film reflects reality for millions of ordinary Pakistanis, people who yearn for freedom and fulfilment, people who create moments of joy every day for those they love.
On 16 November 2022, an aide to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told Associated Press that a committee formed to evaluate the film approved its release with minor cuts. The film premiered in Pakistan on its planned release date of 18 November, although several “objectionable erotic” scenes were subjected to censorship.
Joyland remains banned in the Punjab province.
Reception
Critical response
The film received widespread critical acclaim from international critics. It received a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival premiere. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 98% of 48 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The website’s consensus reads: “With stunning honesty that’s achingly bittersweet, Joyland tackles gender and sexual fluidity in a repressed patriarchal society with wisps of hopefulness.” On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating “universal acclaim”.
India
Upon the film’s premiere in India, Anna M. M. Vetticad wrote on Firstpost: “In these divisive times, it is worth pondering over the many commonalities between our two countries – our failings included – as are reflected in this wonderfully sensitive chronicle of friendship and love, longing and loneliness, sexuality, desire, enforced gender roles, and the everydayness behind which prejudice, repression and oppression thrive.” Vetticad added that, “In contrast to the cacophony of tyranny and persecution accompanying Haider, Mumtaz and Biba’s journey, the film runs as smoothly as a symphony in motion.”
Siddhant Adlakha of IndieWire gave the film a grade of “B+”, writing, “The frame moves slowly, if at all, but it always brims with physical and emotional energy; there’s always something in the ether, whether embodied by dazzling displays of light as characters move across stages and club floors or by breathtaking silences.”
In National Herald, Namrata Joshi wrote that the film has been crafted on the “power of the implicit”. Joshi praised the “virtuoso cast”, writing, “each character, irrespective of her or his length of stay on screen, is imbued with a rare completeness, and brought alive by meticulous, effortless performance”. Concluding her review, she stated, “Joyland begins with a birth, a sense of hope and possibility but leaves one with a tremendous sense of loss.” Next she brought out the pathos of the film writing, “The circle of life is communicated with tenderness and poise by Sadiq that makes it doubly poignant.”
Film critic Anupama Chopra praised the performances of the film’s cast, writing, “The actors – Ali Junejo, Salmaan Peerzada, Sarwat Gilani, Sania Saeed, and Alina Khan – deliver emotionally resonant performances.” Chopra concluded, “With poetry and abiding melancholy, Joyland creates a poignant portrait of a splintered family”. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express found Joyland “heartwarming”.
International
Lovia Gyarkye of The Hollywood Reporter called Joyland a “family saga, one that the director Sadiq uses to observe how gender norms constrict, and then asphyxiate, individuals”. Gyarkye concluded that the film is “an aching consideration of gender and sexuality.”
Deadline Hollywood’s Anna Smith opined that the film “has a vivid sense of place, created not so much by its geographical backdrop as its characters”, and wrote that it “remains a thoughtful, well performed and engrossing drama set in a culture that’s shifting, and not always with ease.”
Allan Hunter of Screen Daily wrote, “Sadiq’s screenplay navigates a complex web of secrets and lies, pressures and prejudices to create a soulful human drama intent on challenging narrow minds.” Arguing that the film offers “no real villains here beyond a society that imposes rigid expectations on individuals and genders”, Hunter writes that “liberation carries a hefty price in Joyland, especially for the women,” further adding that “Sadiq’s engaging, thought-provoking film is fully aware of the sacrifices made and the struggles that still lie ahead.”
Film critic Jason Gorber, reviewing at the film at Cannes festival, wrote, “Expect this to be an absolute breakthrough from this year’s Cannes 2022 with enormous international attention.” Gorber called the film “profound and powerful”, and one that “upends all expectation of cinema from that often closed culture, one that brashly looks at love, family, longing in its myriad forms.
Variety’s Guy Lodge found the film “tartly funny and plungingly sad in equal measure,” and opined that, “as a tale of transgender desire in a Muslim country, its very premise makes it a boundary-breaker.” Appreciating the director, Lodge wrote, “Sadiq’s debut impresses with its sensitive storytelling and vibrant visuals.”
Ryan Leston of /Film gave the film a score of seven out of 10, praising Sadiq’s direction and calling it “a wonderful film about longing and desire with a melancholy undertone that you just don’t expect.”
Davide Abbatescianni of The New Arab wrote that Joyland “deserves wide praise, especially considering the troubled socio-cultural context in which it was shot.” Moreover, he wrote, “it prompts important questions about chasing dreams and discovering our true selves.”
Where to Watch
You can buy “Joyland” on Vudu, Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Microsoft Store as download or rent it on Google Play Movies, YouTube, Vudu, Microsoft Store, Apple TV, Amazon Video online.
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