Written by: Dr. Dushka H. Saiyid and Haroon Shuaib
Posted on: December 07, 2022 | 
| 中文
(L to R) Ali Junejo as Haider and Alina Khan as Biba in Joyland
Saim Sadiq has made his debut with the internationally critically acclaimed film Joyland that he has both written and directed. It premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival on 23 May 2022 where it competed for the Caméra d'Or. Joyland is the first Pakistani film to premiere at Cannes Film Festival and won the Jury Prize and Queer Palm prize for best LGBTQ, queer or feminist theme movie at the festival. The film was released in Pakistan on 18 November 2022, and was selected as the Pakistani entry for Best International Feature Film for the 95th Academy Awards.
Team Joyland at Cannes Film Festival. (L to R) Saim Sadiq, Approva Charan, Rasti Farooq, Sarwat Gilani, Ali Junejo, Alina Khan, Sania Saeed, Sana Jafri
Joyland dissects the cultural values of a lower middle-class household of Lahore, and sensitively handles the web of relationships in this joint-family system. At the head of the family is Rana, a lonely widower, now in a wheelchair, an embodiment of the all-pervasive patriarchy in our society. Salman Peerzada as Rana Amanullah is suitably forbidding and at other times vulnerable as a lonely, handicapped widower who is confined to a wheelchair.
However, the main protagonists of the film are Haider and Biba. Haider is the younger son of Rana, who is not only unemployed but has not been able to produce a child, leave alone a son. Doubly disadvantaged in Rana’s perception, Haider is left to help with the household chores and babysit his elder brother’s children. The elder brother, Saleem is another prototype of his father, an alpha male with the same domineering streak and world view.
Haider (Ali Junejo) is serving food
As Haider desperately looks for a job, he ends up as a background dancer at a seedy theater, where Biba, a transgender, is the main performer and attraction. Mumtaz, played by Rasti Farooq, is pressured by the family to leave her job at the salon to help with the chores at home, although her only condition at the time of marriage was that Haider would let her work.
Ali Junejo as Haider and Rasti Farooq as Mumtaz
Saim Sadiq has sensitively handled the relationship that develops between Biba and Haider, both of whom do not fit into society’s gendered roles. However, a casualty of Biba and Haider’s budding relationship is Haider’s marriage to Mumtaz, beautifully played by Rasti Farooq. Haider and Mumtaz are shown to have a caring relationship, but she magically gets pregnant, and it’s a boy. As Haider gets involved with Biba, the problems begin!
(L to R) Alina Khan as Biba and Ali Junejo as Haider
Both Alina Khan as Biba, and Ali Junejo as Haider, have given outstanding performances. Ali Junejo won the Honourable Mention Award at the São Paulo International Film Festival for lead actor. Haider’s portrayal of the gentle underdog both in the family and as a victim of bullying by other dancers in Biba’s troupe, is a scathing commentary on social pressures faced by men everywhere who lack aggression and machismo. Biba is shown as an object of curiosity, mockery and in one scene of abuse. However, she has that aggressive edge with which she protects Haider.
Biba (Alina Khan) with background dancers
Sania Saeed is good as ever at portraying the bored but lonely widow, who brings gifts of food to the Rana household, and loves hanging out with them. However, one night when there is no one home and she is forced to stay over to look after the old Rana, she is shamed and insulted by her son before the whole Rana family because of his concern as to “log kiya kahein gai” (what will people of the neighborhood say).
It is the same night that the two daughters-in-law take off for the evening to have some fun at a mela (fun fair). The camaraderie and affection between the two as they enjoy the rides at the fair, make for a pleasant relief from their dreary and hum drum existence. Saim Sadiq captures the joy of these two young girls having fun while out of their suffocating home.
(L to R) Rasti Farooq as Mumtaz and Sarwat Gilani as Nucchi
The film is about taboo desires and identities, explored by Saim Sadiq with a deft touch. It exposes the undercurrents beneath the surface of Pakistani families and the pressure to conform. As the film progresses the lives of the protagonists unravel, leading to tragedy.
Not surprisingly, despite the federal government’s censor board having passed the film, the Punjab government has banned it. The Islamabad Club also took it off under pressure of some of its members. I am reminded of Sir Syed’s endeavors to establish the Aligarh Muslim University. There was a legion of his detractors who campaigned against his introducing western education as it would corrupt Muslims.
However, attitudes to transgenders are changing for Dr Shireen Mazari as the Human Rights Minister in the PTI government, can be credited for: creating a transgender ward in PIMS (Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences); appointing a transgender as a consultant in the Ministry and taking a transgender as part of Pakistan’s delegation to the UN moot in Geneva and setting up a transgender protection center in Islamabad. However, their most important contribution of operationalizing a private member’s bill by framing rules and giving people the right to declare themselves as the third gender in passports in Pakistan’s identity cards (ID or shanakhti cards) has been implemented.
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