Joyland Movie 2022

Joyland – Movie 2022

Joyland is a Pakistani film, shot in Pakistan featuring a trans woman, Alina Khan. A Pakistani family confronts emotional intimacy and social expectations when their son begins performing with a trans dancer, in Saim Sadiq’s staggering debut feature — winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize and the Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival.

Adapted from his award-winning short Darling (TIFF ’19), Saim Sadiq’s staggering debut feature, Joyland, has catapulted Pakistan to the forefront of international cinema with a bittersweet tale of repressed desire and the quest for individual freedom.

Joyland – Movie 2022

Haider Rana (Ali Junejo), a quiet, unemployed husband to a vociferous, employed wife, Mumtaz (Rasti Farooq), has a seemingly happy arranged marriage and ordered family life, living under the same roof as the rest of the Rana clan. Amidst pressure and ridicule from his father, Haider finds work as a backup dancer for the trans performer Biba (Alina Khan), opening his eyes to another way to love — and another way of life. Mumtaz, meanwhile, is frustrated with the expectations of patriarchal society. Soon their desires collide, forcing them and their family to reckon with what has been buried for so long.

Winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize and Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, Joyland willfully explores desire — and who has the right to it — in a society that is slowly turning the corner on gender and sexual identity. Without pretending to have all the answers, Sadiq raises important questions, while delivering nuanced characters who are all still searching for their own voice and for someone to listen. Not only is Sadiq’s visual style distinct, but his craft as a storyteller is also remarkable. This is a film that becomes increasingly more compelling as it reaches its undeniably emotional conclusion.

Pakistan, 2022 – Urdu, Punjabi
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE – 127 minutes
Director
Saim Sadiq

Cast

Ali Junejo, Rasti Farooq, Alina Khan, Sarwat Gilani, Salmaan Peerzada, Sohail Sameer, Sania Saeed

Cinematography
Joe Saade

Editing
Saim Sadiq, Jasmin Tenucci
Executive Producers
Ramin Bahrani, William Olsson, Jen Goyne Blake, Owais Ahmed, Tiffany Boyle, Elsa Ramo, Oleg Dubson, Hari Charana Prasad, Sukanya Puvvula, Kathrin Lohmann
Producers
Apoorva Charan, Sarmad Khoosat, Lauren Mann, Kathryn M. Moseley, Oliver Ridge, April Shih, Katharina Otto-Bernstein
Production Companies
all caps, Khoosat Films
Production Designer
Kanwal Khoosat
Screenplay
Saim Sadiq, Maggie Briggs
Sound
Faiz Zaidi, Nathan Ruyle
Publicists
Required Viewing, Inc.
Original Score
Abdullah Siddiqui
International Sales Agent
Film Constellation
US Sales Agent
WME