“Joyland” directed by Saim Sadiq, is Pakistan’s first-ever official entry to the Cannes Film festival competition 2022. The film has left audiences slack-jawed and admiring its daring portrait of a transgender dancer in a Muslim country. 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”.
The film is a tale of the sexual revolution and 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.
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The movie has gained positive reviews from international publications. Here are some excerpts from those reviews.