Pakistani full length feature, Joyland, is part of Cannes’ official selection this year. It will play in the second most important category, A Certain Regard, known to include experimental cinema and works by newcomers.
Joyland – by debutant director Saim Sadiq, who in 2019 won the Best Short Film Lion in the Venice’s Orizzonti (New Horizons) for his Darling – is a story of sexual revolution. A happy joint family yearns for the birth of a baby boy to keep the lineage alive in what is a traditional patriarchal community. As life often has a way of springing surprises, the family’s youngest son secretly joins an erotic dance theatre group and falls in love with a transsexual starlet, who is ruthlessly ambitious.
Joyland stars Ali Junejo, Alina Khan, Rasti Farooq, Sarwat Gilani, Sohail Sameer, Salman Peerzada, and Sania Saeed. The DOP is Joe Saade (“Costa Brava Lebanon,” “Broken Keys”).
“My amazing cast has given the characters of Joyland a kind of empathy and humanity that a moviemaker can only hope for and I am thrilled to experience their magic,” said Sadiq in an Instagram post. “I am so excited to share the first image of Joyland and, deeply humbled that Joyland is going to have it’s world premiere at the 75th Cannes Film Festival. Virtual hugs for my cast and crew who deserve this moment and so much more.”
Sadiq told Images last week that he hoped Joyland would generate positivity and good debate at home in Pakistan and around the world because a lot of very passionate people have put a lot of heart and soul into this movie. He also said that he and the crew planned take the film to Pakistan later this year.
“Saim has weaved a tender and sensual modern day family tale, wrestling with the weight of manufactured gender roles. It radiates the shared desire to live and love without compromise,” said Fabien Westerhoff, CEO of Film Constellation, a French-British firm which will handle the movie’s international sales.
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