Joyland
Saim Sadiq’s Cannes-winning Pakistani drama tackles gender fluidity and the complexity of human relationships.
Seeking a phrase apt for what lay at the heart of this remarkable film from Pakistan, I found myself thinking of words that occur in one of Stephen Sondheim's most famous pieces. The song is ‘Send in the Clowns’ and the phrase so pertinent here is this one: "I thought that you’d want what I want – sorry, my dear!" Films from Pakistan rarely reach us and to that extent Saim Sadiq’s Joyland would stand out in any case, but it also reaches us having garnered two prizes at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival as well as many awards elsewhere.
For a first feature it is handled with great assurance, but Sadiq is the writer too, sharing that credit with Maggie Briggs, and it is the quality of the screenplay that stands out together with the ability of an excellent cast to bring it fully to life. Joyland takes place in Lahore in the home of the Rana family where all live together. The patriarch (Salmaan Peerzada) is now an aged widower in a wheelchair and his two married sons share his accommodation. The older son, Saleem (Sohail Sameer), already has three young children and his wife, Nucchi (Sarwat Gilani), is pregnant again. However, the central focus is on the younger son, Haider (Ali Junejo), currently out of work although his wife, Mumtaz (Rasti Farooq), is employed in a hairdressing salon. Haider has a friend, Qaiser (Ramiz Law), who regards him as too under the thumb of his father but he finds him a job and encourages him in this move. Haider needs to be persuaded because the job in question is as a backing dancer, one of six who support Biba (Alina Khan) in what is known as an erotic dance show. Despite the hostility of another leading performer (Priya Usman Khan), Biba is building up her act and defying anyone who questions her right as a trans woman to do this. Although surgery has yet to be carried through Biba is confident in her identity and comes across as a strong woman who will take no nonsense. When first asked about his new job, Haider makes no mention of Biba or even of the fact that he is dancing on stage knowing that the description "theatre manager" would be far more palatable to his family.
As the story develops, Haider finds himself drawn to Biba more than to his wife, but this situation grows into something much more than that old staple of drama, the romantic triangle. All of the characters are presented with sympathy and understanding – that even applies to some extent to the father and the widow (Sania Saeed) who has an eye on him even though the outlook of these two is rooted in traditional views. What gradually becomes apparent is that Haider is a gentle soul whose attraction to Biba is linked to unacknowledged desires indicative of his being gay. We feel for him in his voyage of discovery so well depicted by Ali Junejo, but we are also concerned for Biba and gradually come to recognise that the instincts that draw these two together are so different as to conflict. Similarly, although Mumtaz has failed to have a child, it is made clear that her marriage to Haider, one that had been set up by their families, is nevertheless one that both had wanted. Consequently, the viewer is again sympathetic when considering the position in which Mumtaz finds herself.
One of the awards which Joyland won at Cannes was the Queer Palm, but this is no standard gay movie geared to that audience in particular or presented in a way that opts for a particular message about LGBTQ+ issues and then creates characters to fit in with that. Instead, this is a film in which all the main figures vividly possess individual life to an exceptional degree. Consequently, Joyland is totally engaging as a sad but wholly believable portrait of how the complexity of human feelings, influenced as they are by inborn sexuality, can lead to decent people hurting each other without meaning to do so. If there is blame here, it is placed on a society so rooted in traditional beliefs that it discourages openness about divergent sexual needs. The pain felt is apparent including that of Biba who, in addition to what any trans person might expect to be subjected to, is inadvertently misled by what she and Haider could mean to each other (Alina Khan who is splendid in this role is herself trans).
The complicated relationships depicted could in lesser hands have taken on an air of melodrama but, just as the production design carries a sense of authenticity in the home scenes of the Rana family, the tale has the potential to be a tragedy touchingly realised in the key of everyday life. In point of fact, Joyland, despite retaining its basic realism, opts to let the tragedy build into a higher register, one that gives an extra weight that some viewers may embrace. For myself, I felt that the work would have been stronger – and probably an out-and-out masterpiece – had it ended on a quieter and less heavy but equally disturbing note, something that it could easily have done. But that is probably a matter of personal taste and the film is undoubtedly a fine work which deserves to be seen and discussed. And on top of all that Joyland is one of those rare films which leaves one with the wish that a shared acting award could be given, in this case to all three leading players.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Ali Junejo, Rasti Farooq, Alina Khan, Sarwat Gilani, Salmaan Peerzada, Sohail Sameer, Sania Saeed, Ramiz Law, Honey Albela, Priya Usman Khan, Izna Hayat Khan, Shahbaz Rafiq, Umar Fiaz, Iftikhar India.
Dir Saim Sadiq, Pro Apoorva Guru Charan, Sarmad Sultan Khoosat, Lauren Mann and others Screenplay Saim Sadiq and Maggie Briggs, Ph Joe Saade, Pro Des Kanwal Khoosat, Ed Jasmin Tenucci and Saim Sadiq, Music Abdullah Siddiqui, Costumes Zoya Hassan.
ALL CAPS/Khoosat Films/Astrakan AB/One Two Twenty Entertainment/Blood Moon Creative/Diversity Hire Ltd./Noruz Films-Studio Soho Distribution.
127 mins. Pakistan. 2022. UK Rel: 24 February 2023. Cert. 15.
