Joyland (2022)
2022
NR
127 Minutes
As a patriarchal family yearn for the birth of a baby boy to continue their family line, their youngest son secretly joins an erotic dance theatre and falls for a transgender starlet.
User Review
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WHAT I LIKED: Saim Sadiq's Joyland isn't just a seminal Pakistani film because it was the first from the country to be entered at Cannes and shortlisted at The Oscars. It's also because, revolving around a working-class family who live together in Lahore, it's an absolute gut-punch of a story about the pain of living the life that's expected of you rather than the one you need to.
The family's son Haider (Ali Junejo) is repeatedly scorned by his patriarchal father for letting his wife Mumtaz (Rasti Farooq) be the breadwinner, but when he gets a job he thinks he might enjoy at an exotic theatre, he lies about it so he doesn't get judged. There he realises he's falling for a trans woman there called Bilba (Alina Khan) and has to keep his relationship and sexuality a secret too.
Then we have Haider's sister-in-law who's completely resigned to the life laid out before her, and Mumtaz herself who gets almost no opportunity to try a life of her own, as, when Haider gets his job, she's forced to stay at home and have a baby she doesn't want. Even the father feels he can't follow his heart and let a neighbour come and live with them out of fear for judgment from others.
Living like this drives the characters to extreme pain and suffering, and that's brought to life brilliantly by Haider's timid uncertainty all the way to an eventual suicide which rips the family in two. Only Bilba and her friends live life the way they want to live, and the freedom they offer Haider a glimpse of is revelatory when set against this horribly constrained family.
That all eventually leads Haider to realise the importance of living your own life, and that makes for a hugely powerful message particularly when viewed through an LGBT lens. Couple that with a set of outstanding performances and Sadiq's transporting sense of place which adds to the claustrophobia of the societal expectations, and you've got yourself one of the most impactful and important films of the year.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: There is a lot of pent-up angst which is only really released at the end.
VERDICT: Saim Sadiq's 'Joyland,' is a masterful film about the importance of living the life you need to live rather than the one laid out for you.0 member like this review.
