Joyland (film)

Joyland (Urdu: جوائے لینڈ) is a 2022 Pakistani drama film, written and directed 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 low-income 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 hijra dancer.

Joyland's executive producers include prominent figures Malala Yousufzai, Jemima Goldsmith, Riz Ahmed, and Ramin Bahrani among others.

Joyland had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 23 May 2022, becoming the first Pakistani film to premiere at the festival. It screened in the Un Certain Regard section, where it competed for the Caméra d'Or. It won the Jury Prize, as well as the Queer Palm for best LGBTQ-themed film. It was initially banned for theatrical release in Pakistan, but eventually approved for release after minor cuts. It premiered domestically on 18 November 2022 and received generally positive reviews from critics. Joyland was Pakistan's entry for Best International Feature Film at 95th Academy Awards, where it became the first Pakistani film to be shortlisted in the category.

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 him secure a job at an erotic dance theatre, where he is to perform as a backup dancer for Biba, a hijra dancer. Haider had previously seen a bloodied Biba at a hospital when his sister-in-law, Nucchi, was giving birth to a fourth daughter. Upon learning that Haider has found work, Amanullah—who wishes for a grandson—orders Mumtaz to quit her job.

Haider joins his fellow backup dancers for rehearsals with Biba, but demonstrates little experience in dancing. After the rehearsal, he accompanies Biba to the theatre, where he witnesses an argument between her and the theatre 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 cooler. That night, while Biba attends an event at which she is groped by a man, Haider goes to collect the standee. Unable to store it at the theatre, he brings it 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, deeming the standee shameful. At another rehearsal, Haider begins to show improvement in his dancing. That night, Biba and Haider go to her home, where she explains her bloodied appearance at the hospital—the blood belonged to another hijra, Tina, who was shot and killed by a man in front of Biba. Haider and Biba talk about the ocean, and he says that he has never been outside Lahore. They nearly kiss, but Haider returns home. In bed with Mumtaz, he asks her about the ocean, and she suggests 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 theatre unexpectedly shuts off, Haider convinces Biba and the others to continue 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 theatre, 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 or the theatre. 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. She is later found dead. Family, neighbours 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 he maligns Mumtaz for killing 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, whether she herself wants to marry him; they mutually agree to do so. In the present, Haider leaves Lahore to visit the ocean and wades out into the water.

• Ali Junejo as Haider, the youngest son of the Rana family. He finds work as a backup dancer at an erotic dance company and falls for Biba in the process.
• Alina Khan as Biba, the lead dancer of the erotic dance company. She is openly trans and is often faced with prejudice.
• Rasti Farooq as Mumtaz, the wife of Haider who is forced to stop working once he gets his job.
• Sarwat Gilani as Nucchi, the wife of Salmaan and a traditional stay at home mom to four girls.
• Salmaan Peerzada as Rana Amanullah, the oldest member and head of the family. He is widowed and lives his life in a wheelchair.
• Sohail Sameer as Saleem, the oldest son of the Rana family who is employed and a father to four girls.
• Sania Saeed as Fayyaz, an older widow who is a neighbor and friend to the Rana family.

Joyland explores themes of gender, sexuality and patriarchal family structures in the Pakistani society. Sadiq talks about drawing inspiration from his own upbringing in a patriarchal society that led to struggles within his relationship dynamics. This is reflected in the Rana's family system, the men expected to be the one's working and leading while the women take care of the house and children. We see Haider struggle in his masculinity in his relationship with Biba, who is a transgender woman. However, Sadiq discusses her character as being one of the leads who happens to be trans; it's not the transgender character that the film is about. He wrote Biba with the same dichotomies that he wrote the character of Mumtaz with. Joyland also brings up questions of desire and identity. Biba is comfortable with her desires, and has a strong sense of identity, where Haider lacks this completely.

Joyland was made with a budget of under €100,000. It was shot in the span of 6 weeks in 2021, during the global pandemic. All of production took place in the city of Lahore, Pakistan with key locations being the Mehfil Theatre, an actual erotic dance theater, and the amusement park Joyland Lahore.

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 ... 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."

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... It's a film about the ways in which patriarchy hurts everyone — men, women and children...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. Private screenings of Joyland have been hosted in Lahore, the first in August 2025.

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 85 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".

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."

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".

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."

• List of submissions to the 95th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film

• List of Pakistani submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film

• Joyland at IMDb

• Joyland at Rotten Tomatoes