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JOYLAND

By Saim SADIQ

Drama - Completed 2022

As the Ranas, a happily patriarchal joint family yearn for the birth of a baby boy to continue the family line, their youngest son secretly joins an erotic dance theatre and falls for an ambitious trans starlet.

Festivals
& Awards

Festival de Cannes 2022

Un Certain Regard Prix du Jury

Toronto - TIFF 2022

Special Presentations

Busan IFF 2022

A Window on Asian Cinema

Sundance Film Festival 2023

Spotlight

- Year of production
- 2022
- Genres
- Drama
- Countries
- PAKISTAN, USA
- Languages
- URDU
- Duration
- 126 mn
- Director(s)
- Saim SADIQ
- Cast
- Ali JUNEJO, Alina KHAN, Rasti FAROOQ
- Producer(s)
- Apoorva CHARAN, Sarmad KHOOSAT, Lauren MANN, Tiffany BOYLE, Elsa RAMO, Hari CHARANA
- Synopsis
- Since premiering and winning the Jury Prize in the 2022 Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival (the first to do so from the Indian subcontinent), Joyland has moved audiences worldwide with its human portrayal of the limits of love in the face of patriarchy.
  
  Haider rushes his sister-in-law to the hospital where she gives birth to a girl, devastating the extended family desperate for a baby boy. The brothers’ elderly father is still hopeful Haider and his wife, Mumtaz, despite their unorthodox relationship, will bring them their much desired male heir. Everything changes though when Haider takes a job as a backup dancer at an erotic theater and falls in love with its beautiful transgender star Biba.
  
  Joyland is both a loving portrait of the people of Lahore, Pakistan, and a painful depiction of how traditional gender roles and repressed sexuality harm all. Showcasing incredible performances and shot with a sharp yet kind eye, feature debut writer-director Saim Sadiq crafts an unforgettable cinematic experience about how vaguely understood but powerful societal expectations can destroy an individual, relationship, and family.

JOYLAND

Festivals& Awards

Festivals
& Awards