Pakistani cinema made history last year when joyland (2022), written and directed by Saim Sadiq, became the first Pakistani film to premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, receiving a standing ovation and international acclaim. During his festival circuit, joyland received several awards and was shortlisted for the Oscars but was banned in its home country. Despite previous permissions from federal and provincial censorship boards, distribution of the film in the Punjabi language was stopped by the Pakistani government last November as the film consisted of “highly objectionable material”, including scenes of LGBTQ+ intimacy.
While Pakistan’s Federal Censor Board quickly reversed the nationwide ban three days later with ‘minor cuts’ to the film’s most controversial scenes after immense criticism for censorship on social media, the Punjab Censor Board has finally banned the screening of the film in the province of Punjab, where the film is shot and filmed. Now New Yorkers can watch the disputed film at Manhattan’s Cinema Forum Theater.
joyland is told through the lens of the goofy and gentle black sheep Haider Rana, the second adult son of widowed and powerful patriarch Amanullah “Abba” Rana and the younger brother of eldest son Saleem Rana. Haider and his wife Mumtaz live with Abba, Saleem, Saleem’s wife Nucchi and their four young daughters in an apartment in Lahore, Pakistan, near an amusement park. Nucchi had just given birth to her fourth daughter – a disappointment as they were expecting a son according to ultrasound results. Amid shifting domestic energy after Abba failed to have his first grandson, Haider, who was previously a stay-at-home husband while Mumtaz worked as a bridal makeup artist, got a job at a dance theater local erotica as a backup dancer for a self-confident. and a smart-mouthed transgender woman named Biba, played by Pakistani trans actress Alina Khan.
Haider finally earning money for the family, his wife was ordered to quit her job and help Nucchi with the maintenance of the house, cooking for the family of nine and caring for Abba who is in a wheelchair and further loses his physical faculties. Cursed with two left feet, Haider, who never seems to be able to do or say the right thing at the right time, fell in love with Biba almost instantly when she seduced him after he asked to see a photo of his wife. Meanwhile, Mumtaz, suffocated by the confinements of the patriarchal and claustrophobic hierarchy with the constant demands of Nucchi and Saleem’s four daughters, collapsed when she discovered she was pregnant with the family’s first grandson. while Haider neglects their marriage for Biba’s attention.
Shot in a 1:1 aspect ratio, the film’s tight compositions underscore the awkwardness and lack of privacy in a multi-family household steeped in a culture where everyone knows everything and there is a constant concern for “kya kahenge diaryin both Punjabi and Hindi/Urdu for “What will people say?” This claustrophobia and anxiety permeates throughout the film as Haider lies that he is the director of the theater and not a dancer, Mumtaz feigns excitement over her pregnancy, Nucchi hides his hurt feelings regarding daughter-son confusion and Biba’s hardened shell from endurance fractures.
joyland is a groundbreaking film that mirrors Pakistan’s past, present and future through an examination of femininity and its expectations, for trans and cis women, within the combined web of patriarchy and religion . And through its confrontation with femininity, there is the truth about how strict gender roles affect men as well, a side effect that has yet to be unpacked throughout South Asia. Although Haider is the intentional vehicle through which we discover the layers beneath Biba and Mumtaz, we are aware that Haider was always on the fringes of the binary and felt like nothing belonged to him.
Filled with humorous moments, explorations of insecurities across gender and generation, and familiar family dynamics, joyland challenges viewers to sympathize with the oppressors as well as the oppressed, both of whom are victims of the system, no matter who holds the power. Sadiq gives us leeway to process these emotions throughout the film in beautiful shots where subjects fade into the background and objects come to life in the foreground. joyland screens at the Film Forum until Thursday, May 4, and tickets can be purchased through the theater website.
