Film Notes

Joyland: Extraordinary, unmissable tale of unexpected attraction.

Pakistani director Saim Sadiq’s Cannes-winning debut has huge heart and beautifully drawn characters.

This extraordinary debut feature from Saim Sadiq became the first Pakistani film selected for Cannes last year. It left the Croissette with the Jury Prize, the Queer Palm and hatfuls of swooning, richly deserved notices.

Set in bustling, inner-city Lahore, Joyland concerns a very traditional family headed up by stern patriarch Rana Amanullah (Peerzada), a widower who is put out by the fact that his older son Saleem (Sohail Sameer) and daughter-in-law Nucchi (Sarwat Gilani) have only produced daughters thus far.

His younger son, Haider (Ali Junejo) is intelligent, sensitive, and helps around the house. Haider’s wife is a self-sufficient make-up artist, Mumtaz (Rasti Farooq). The younger couple is childless and the daydreaming Haider hasn’t had a proper job in years until he improbably lands work as a backing dancer for trans woman performer Biba (Alina Khan) at a local variety club. Haider’s unexpected attraction to Biba kick-starts a melodrama of Sirkian dimensions.

Khan blazes up the screen by elaborating on her performance in Sadiq’s Venice-winning 2019 short film Darling. She makes for an electrifying presence even while sitting around. Khan driving down the street on a moped makes for an indelible image. Her alternately bitchy, tender and cynical Biba is well met by the quiet passion of newcomer Junejo.

The script, co-written by the director and Maggie Briggs, ensures that each supporting character is beautifully drawn in miniature strokes. A short exchange between Haider and Mumtaz in their crowded bed doubles as a masterclass in screenwriting.

The visuals are as impressive as the cast, as cinematographer Joe Saade finds colour and luminescence in darkened interiors. Fairy lights and fake fireflies make dreary rooms as splendid as the fairground rides and Bollywood-style musical numbers found in the film’s louder moments.

Mostly, Joyland is a film of huge heart and empathy. Mirroring the hapless hero’s journey, it’s an unexpected romance.

Tara Brady, The Irish Times, Fri Feb 24 2023

Joyland’: Film Review | Cannes 2022.

‘Saim Sadiq’s debut feature observes the tension within a Pakistani family suffocated by societal conventions.

It’s fitting that Saim Sadiq’s debut feature Joyland begins with a birth — an event burdened by society’s attempts to consecrate the arbitrary. A water breaks. A panicked woman instructs her diffident brother-in-law to get the bike. They ride through the streets of Lahore to the hospital, where nurses fling questions and instructions like darts. The man — his name is Haider (Ali Junejo) — tries his best to keep up. His brother, Saleem (Sohail Sameer), rushes into the ward just in time. A baby girl is born to a family desperate for a boy.

Joyland is a family saga, one that Sadiq uses to observe how gender norms constrict, and then asphyxiate, individuals. The Ranas feel trapped — by respectability, by family, by vague notions of honor. Bound by their duty to roles they quietly question, the members of this clan slowly suffer under the weight of obligation and expectations. What happens to them — individually and collectively — is a process that Sadiq’s film chronicles with aching consideration.

In the maternity ward, Nucchi (Sarwat Gilani) — sullen and sweaty — stares off into the distance as Saleem gently strokes her face. They were told the child would be a boy. Saleem queries the doctors and then reluctantly submits to his reality. His disappointment radiates off the screen. This brief interaction reveals strokes of the family’s suffocation and highlights one of Joyland’s strengths. Sadiq, whose film Darling won the Orizzonti Prize for Best Short at the 2019 Venice Film Festival, has a gift for mood-setting. His approach to constructing scenes is languid, slow, unhurried. The significance of interactions, objects, snippets of dialogue, have room to evolve, their meanings becoming clear as the film grows more confident.

Saleem calls his father, and eventually he and Nucchi leave the hospital. Life must go on. That means Haider resumes his duties as a stay-at-home husband — caring for his gaggle of nieces, helping Nucchi around the house. His wife, Mumtaz (Rasti Farooq), a strong-willed make-up artist, spends her days working at a salon. No one knows what Saleem does with his time. Their father (Salmaan Peerzada) — the patriarch whom they fear — spends his days in his wheelchair, watching his family as a king does his court.

The beginning of Joyland presents a family straining to align themselves with convention. Haider doesn’t work, which makes him a failure in the eyes of his father. When he is not able to slaughter a goat, frustrations with him deepen.

Haider’s opportunity to prove himself arrives when he lands a job. He is coy with the details, knowing that his family would not approve of him working as a background dancer for Biba, a trans woman, at an erotic theater. The job announcement marks a shift in family life. Mumtaz reluctantly stays home with Nucchi, and Haider finds himself thrust into a world unlike his own.

Biba (Alina Khan) represents freedom, at least from Haider’s limited perspective. I say limited because this doe-eyed, chronically apologetic young man lacks a shocking amount of curiosity about his boss, whom he immediately falls in love with. After the first rehearsal, where Haider struggles to learn the choreography, he begins following Biba around like a puppy. He watches as she commands her background dancers, demands respect from the theater manager and chips away at her dreams to become a star. Her actions require a level of courage Haider desires but never quite achieves. As their romance morphs into a full-fledged affair, one wishes that Haider would ask Biba more questions about herself, her life and what drives her. Instead, he remains stuck in a feedback loop of passivity, one that becomes increasingly hard to tolerate.

Haider wants to change — that much is clear — but perhaps not as profoundly as a viewer might expect. His interactions with Biba come to us in fits and starts, these tender, sensuous moments frequently interrupted by abrupt shifts in perspective. As the pair grow closer, Joyland’s broad framework becomes a liability. The stories of the other family members, while interesting, tend to cramp the couple’s courtship. One longs to spend more time with Haider and Biba, digging into the details of their relationship. Biba and Haider’s interactions are some of the film’s most novel considerations of gender normativity and its pitfalls. Being with Biba forces Haider into unfamiliar terrain, which he can only navigate by being honest with himself. What kind of life has he let happen to him? The film also might have been enriched by further exploring what being with Haider means for Biba, who is on a similar search for selfhood.

Their relationship presents a refreshing challenge for the film: how to circumvent the ease of melodrama and reach for something more candid. Sadiq, with the help of DP Joe Saade, searches for the truth in close-ups, which clarify what words can only partially communicate. When Biba excitedly tells Haider about earning enough money for her surgeries, the frame stays close to their faces, which tell a deeper story. His muted response is a sign of how little he knows her.

As Haider gets closer to Biba, life at the Rana house begins to unravel. Another pregnancy threatens to shift the dynamics even more aggressively — a fate that some in the household would rather avoid. As Joyland heads toward its end, the film grows increasingly moving. Secrets and their attendant lies collapse under pressure. The weight of what’s left unsaid strangles interactions. The Ranas can no longer afford to be delusional — their survival depends on it.

By Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, May 23, 2022 

What you thought about Joyland

Film Responses

Collated Response Comments

104 members and guests attended this screening. We received 53 responses delivering a Film Score of 4.28 and a hit rate of 51%.  The most popular is still The Holdovers. Thank you all for your comments they are much appreciated.

All of your observations are collected below: -

“Good – you could have heard a pin drop in here! Gripping to watch. I will probably have it going around in my head tonight!”

“That this film is a debut feature is astonishing, it is as beautifully layered as filo pastry, gentle and subtle, all the characters fully three dimensional, as sympathetic as they are conflicted (apart from Saleem perhaps). Family and love and the many competing directions that they will pull you in, it is Shakesperian in depth and scale (and certainly in its finale), the cinematography luscious and the players excellent”.

“There was an immediacy to the filming; the acting was very good and the plot involved complicated relationships with people trapped in the expectations of those around them”.

“I expected Joyland to be a light-hearted, Bollywood-style comedy, but it turned out to be far deeper and more profound. What a surprise! The tragic ending, though shocking, felt inevitable, as the film explored a dysfunctional family who chose cruelty, unkindness, and exploitation, trapping themselves in narcissistic domestic abuse--perhaps out of fear of going against social norms.

Like 'The Mood for Love', I wished I understood the cultural nuances better--particularly religious influence, social expectations, class, marriage, sex, and control. Yet human nature remains universal, as these issues existed in the UK until quite recently (and still persist, especially in communities that strongly uphold certain values around the world). The story therefore resonated regardless of cultural differences.

The film was gripping (sometimes even uncomfortable), tackling a real-life, controversial topic with great authenticity. The performances were outstanding, and the striking visuals--especially the exquisite lighting (even on the characters' faces(!))--enhanced the contrast between light and darkness.

One moment that stayed with me was the group dance sequence with the lyrics: "I wish to destroy myself for you" (oh please don't!)--a haunting reflection of those forced into insignificance, enslaved to others' desires, where abuse became the norm. Yet the dance itself was a desperate yearning--to live, to be seen, to be heard, to be loved. And to be free. That contrast made it all the more powerful.

The mention of 'Romeo and Juliet' was interesting. Just like the play, the film embodied "violent delights have violent ends", with the tragic consequences of actions--and inactions--falling on everyone. The idea that "all are punished" felt painfully real at the end. The final scene was poignant, and the sound of the sea served as a reminder of life's true meaning. Overall, it was an excellent film”.

“A beautifully descriptive film, made me care about each of the characters. It wasn’t always easy to watch as it touched on several taboos that were at times shocking, making me look more at my own prejudices. A very good film indeed”.

“Very much enjoyed how Joyland kept gliding along variant paths all at once not settling into any comforting trajectory of these digressions it covers. There's a complex of counter-responses and stirred impulses, for example, Haider's growing intimacy with Biba which opens up the complexities of gendered attitudes alongside the nature of sexual orientation.

Joyland as an amusement park, squeezed between concrete buildings much grubbier than Margate's Dreamland giving Mumtaz only ephemeral joy. Wondered if the joke about the mosquito and a chicken presaged Joyland's ending too soon and too obviously so one of the character's fate seems never in doubt. Then the final scene, with Abdullah Siddiqui's music swirling like the tide, is extraordinary, maybe showing that in Pakistan tradition still has the upper hand.

The characters continually negotiate the evident spaces between despairing compulsions then railing against them. At times, the film came close to identity being pushed almost to being unrecognisable. Yet Joyland's characters are complicated and realistic people. Their flaws mirrors both the worldwide social/political climate, and Pakistan and its social/political beliefs there. Some of the emotions and feelings in the film recalled the films of Wim Wenders, Yasujiro Ozu, and Andrei Tarkovsky. Strangely spiritual in a way as it celebrates not only as a jewel of a film for Pakistan, but also for its unabashed look at the human condition, especially as a triumph for the LGBTQ+ community. A gem!”

“I found this film totally absorbing. I wasn't sure what to expect from the film summary and am not sure I would have rushed to watch it if it wasn't on at the film society. All the characters were so convincing and well acted that I felt wrapped up in their lives in a world of a strict patriarchal Muslim society running alongside an alternative world of erotic cabaret and trans genderism. It was a shame it wasn't the obnoxious and hypocritical Baba who died rather than the stifled and beautiful Mumtaz and presumably also the gentle and confused Haider, as he walked into the Ocean at the end. I feel sure, however, that the film had the much more realistic outcome in the circumstances of their life in Pakistan. Another excellent choice. Thanks”.

“No essay from me! Excellent painful film, remarkable achievement for a young guy, dealing with all those nuances of South Asian mores. And to have Malala on board! Well done”.

“Hard work…not enjoyable”. “Too long, too slow, and thoroughly confusing. Not my cup of tea...”

“An interesting but not great film about the pressures of familial and societal expectations; and the impact on both people who conform and those who do not. Fairly well acted and filmed, but lacking a spark through either the screenplay, characterisation or humour to bring it to life”.

“Amazing film”. “Beautiful and sad”.

“Great film, beautifully shot, acted and directed”.

“One of the best selections this year”.

“A very good film maker. Many actors who may find their careers in Pakistan will not develop”.

“Joyland – rather joyless. But a really good film”.

“Fantastic film. What a debut for the filmmaker. The cinematography was brilliant. An authentic view of a different culture”.

“Brillant first film. interesting study of societal expectations – well handled”.

“Such a touching protest at the restrictions on individual freedoms made by society and tradition”.

“Incredibly sad”. “Really good acting, location and background”.

“Loved it”. “Outstanding for a directorial debut. A very moving film”.

“Incredible film”. “A moving film”.

“Very moving! (maybe a tad on the long side)”.

“What a contrast of scenarios. Everyday life in a Pakistani family home and the difficulties of a trans person. Many threads, stories running through the film”.

“Leaves many questions”.

“Interesting insight into Pakistani family life and customs”.

“Very well filmed. An interesting family saga with people trying to escape the pressure of such a tight knit family unit”.

“A remarkable film. Glad I watched it….but a tough watch”.

“Well made”.

“Interesting. Full of oppression, enmeshment etc., etc., “.

“Thought provoking and ……..very skilfully handled”.

“Astonishing that this is a debut feature – and not surprised that this is not welcome in Pakistan”.

“Very well acted. Difficult subject. Film exceptional in culture”.