Alina Khan and Ali Junejo in "Joyland" at the Figge Art Museum -- June 25.
Sunday, June 25, 4 p.m.
Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA
The first Pakistani film ever to be selected for screening at Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for four major awards and won two, writer/director Saim Sadiq's Joyland enjoys a June 25 screening at Davenport's Figge Art Museum, this 2022 critical smash the last of four award-winning independent films to be shown throughout June in recognition and celebration of Gay Pride Month.
Set in inner-city Lahore, Joyland centers around the middle-class Rana family, headed by an elder patriarch (Salmaan Peerzada) who yearns for the birth of a grandson. He forces his daughter-in-law Mumtaz (Rasti Farooq) to quit her job after Haider (Ali Junejo), his youngest son and her husband, finds work at an erotic dance theater. However, complications arise when Haider becomes infatuated with Biba (Alina Khan), a transgender dancer. With Maggie Briggs serving as Sadiq's co-screenwriter, Joyland had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival in May of 2022, becoming the first Pakistani film to premiere there. It screened in the Un Certain Regard section, where it competed for the Caméra d'Or, and the film received a standing ovation, won the festival's Jury Prize, and was also awarded the Queer Palm prize for best LGBTQ-themed film.
After initially being banned for theatrical release in Pakistan, Joyland was approved for release with minor cuts, premiering domestically last November 2022 and receiving mostly rave reviews from critics. It was selected as the Pakistani entry for Best International Feature Film at 95th Academy Awards, and in December, it became the first Pakistani film to be shortlisted in the category. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the movie holds a 98-percent "freshness" rating, with the Web site's critical consensus reading: "With stunning honesty that's achingly bittersweet, Joyland tackles gender and sexual fluidity in a repressed patriarchal society with wisps of hopefulness." Yet Sadiq's achievement continues to be banned in Punjab, the largest and most populated province of Pakistan, and in its capital city of Lahore, where the story takes place and where the film was shot.
Joyland will be screened in the John Deere Auditorium on June 25, admission to the 4 p.m. event is free, and more information is available by calling (563)326-7804 and visiting FiggeArtMuseum.org.
