Saim Sadiq

Joyland

Director Saim Sadiq Composer Abdullah Siddiqui Cast Ali Junejo, Alina Khan, Rasti Farooq, Sarwat Gilani

Explore Zone New Voices LGBTQ+

Edition 2022

Gala Premières en speciale evenementen

126' - 2022 - Drama - Dialogue: Urdu

The first Pakistani film ever to be screened in the Official Selection of Cannes, Saim Sadiq's debut Joyland is about a man who falls in love with a trans woman.

Joyland is the oldest amusement park in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's Punjab province. It's a place where people like Haider and his pregnant wife Mumtaz like to forget all their worries for a while. Mumtaz is cracking under the pressure that Pakistan's patriarchal society puts on her – she has to give birth to a son – and Haider struggles with the weight of a secret: he works as a background dancer for Biba, a trans woman who performs in an exotic dance club. When Haider falls in love with her, a culture clash erupts that unsettles his conservative surroundings. The fact that Saim Sadiq mainly looks at the world of trans artists in his feature debut, which won the Queer Palm at Cannes, should come as no surprise. In 2019, the Pakistani filmmaker also portrayed the nightlife of trans dancers in his award-winning graduation film Darling.

"Saim Sadiq's unexpected trans-cis romance is conscientiously fair to everyone in its Lahore-set domestic melodrama of secrets, lies and unforeseen self-discovery, but never feels like it's hedging its bets or shying away harder truths. Tartly funny and plungingly sad in equal measure." - Variety

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Credits

Directors

Saim Sadiq

Composers

Abdullah Siddiqui

Cast

Ali Junejo, Alina Khan, Rasti Farooq, Sarwat Gilani

Scenario

Saim Sadiq, Maggie Briggs

Director of Photography

Joe Saade

Editors

Saim Sadiq, Jasmin Tenucci

Producers

Apoorva Charan, Sarmad Khoosat, Lauren Mann

Production studios

All in Caps Productions

Distributor

September Film

More info

Dialogue

Urdu

Countries of production

Pakistan

Year

2022

Filmography

Saim Sadiq

Stepmotherland (short, 2014), The Letters of Mikael Muhammad (short, 2015), Blackbird (short, 2016), Pasban (The Caretaker) (short, 2017), Nowhere (short, 2018), Nice Talking to You (short, 2018), Darling (short, 2019), Joyland (2022)

Festival

Year Round

About FFG

Saim Sadiq

Joyland

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Credits

More info

Filmography

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