Trans-themed film dazzles Cannes in Pakistan debut
Director Saim Sadiq, film producer Apoorva Charan, actress Rasti Farooq, Pakistani actor and model Sarwat Gilani, actor Ali Junejo, actor Alina Khan, Pakistani actress Sania Saeed and Pakistani actress Sana Jafri. ― AFP pic
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Thursday, 26 May 2022 7:44 AM MYT
CANNES, May 26 ― The first-ever Pakistani entry in a Cannes Film Festival competition has left audiences slack-jawed and admiring of its daring portrait of a transgender dancer in the Muslim country.
Joyland by director Saim Sadiq, a tale of sexual revolution, tells the story of the youngest son in a patriarchal family who is expected to produce a baby boy with his wife but joins an erotic dance theatre and falls for the troupe's director, a trans woman.
The Cannes opening night's audience gave Joyland a standing ovation, Variety lauding the movie as “so fresh, we're continuously surprised”, while Deadline called it “thoughtful, well performed and engrossing”.
