Joyland

Winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize and Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, Saim Sadiq’s dazzling debut feature is a bittersweet tale of repressed desire and the quest for individual freedom. Unassuming Haider Rana, has a seemingly happy arranged marriage and an ordered family life, living under the same roof as the rest of the Rana clan and his strict patriarchal father. When Haider secretly becomes a backing dancer for an erotic dance cabaret and falls for glamourous trans starlet Biba, family ties begin to strain.

It’s not my own story, but it’s still a personal film because of its portrayal of the patriarchy, desire and intimacy, all of which I’ve been struggling with… There are about 10 dance theatres in Lahore, about the same number as movie theatres. They always run to packed houses, with thousands of seats filled every day. But there’s a moral judgement about these places, which some people consider vulgar. It’s full of contradictions that desire, a taboo in a right-wing conservative society, is no longer a taboo at the dance theatres. But once the audiences leave, they don’t talk about it, repressing their desire.

Director Saim Sadiq, from an interview with Screen Daily