Joyland

In the heart of conservative Pakistan, Haider leads a double life in this critically acclaimed Cannes award winner.

This is a gem from Pakistan, which won both the Queer Palm and Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival. In the strictly conservative Rana family, there is great disappointment with the son Haider. He has a beautiful and resourceful wife, but they are childless, and Haider himself is unemployed. When he lands a job at the theater where an erotic dance troupe performs, the cover story is that he is the manager at the venue. For a moment, it is peaceful and quiet at home. However, the truth is that he works as a dancer and has fallen head over heels for the show's star, the transgender woman Biba.

«The Pakistani director Saim Sadiq’s sensuous film mounts an indictment of misogyny and transphobia without ever lecturing us.»

– Anthony Lane, The New Yorker –

Jon Sæter

Director

Saim Sadiq (b. 1991) is a Pakistani filmmaker educated at Columbia University in the USA. Sadiq has created several short films, including Nice Talking To You, which premiered at South by Southwest in 2019, and Darling (2020), which also premiered at the same festival, where it won the jury prize for narrative short film. Joyland had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022, where it won two awards.

This film is part of