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The Cultural Frontline: Joyland: Why the Pakistani film caused controversy

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Joyland: Why the Pakistani Film caused controversy

03/12/2022 GMT

Joyland: Why the Pakistani film caused controversy

BBC World Service - The Cultural Frontline, Joyland: Why the Pakistani film caused controversy

How a banned film became Pakistan’s entry for the Oscars

Saim Sadiq and Kamran Jawaid discuss the intricacies of getting films released in Pakistan and Gabriel Martins on how his film Mars One was inspired by his own childhood in Brazil

The film Joyland is set in Lahore and tells the story of Haider, a married man who falls in love with the transgender dancer Biba. It’s the first Pakistani film to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and it won the Jury Prize as well as the Queer Palm prize. It has also been selected as the Pakistani entry for Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards. Despite having a standing ovation at Cannes, the film has had a more controversial reaction in Pakistan itself. Originally cleared for release, that decision was then overturned. However the film is now out in cinemas in Pakistan, although remains banned in the Punjab. Tina Daheley speaks to Joyland’s writer and director Saim Sadiq and film critic Kamran Jawaid.

Brazilian director and screenwriter Gabriel Martins took inspiration from his own childhood experience when he made his new film Mars One. It tells the story of a working-class Black Brazilian family adjusting to life after the election of President Jair Bolsanaro. Like Joyland, it has also been selected as its country’s submission for Best International Feature Film at the next Academy Awards. 

Lone Scherfig is a Danish film-maker best known for her romantic comedies including An Education and One Day. She talks about the film that changed her - Austrian director Michael Haneke's 2009 German-language film The White Ribbon. It is a movie with a troubling message about the history of Europe and one that inspires her to ask big, important questions in her own work.

(Photo: A still from Joyland. Credit: Studio Soho)

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