Pakistani film Joyland wins Cannes honour
It is the first-ever Pakistani competitive entry at the Cannes festival and on Friday also won the Jury Prize in the “Un Certain Regard” competition, a segment focusing on young, innovative cinema talent. “It’s a very powerful film, that represents everything that we stand for,” Queer Palm jury head, French director Catherine Corsini, told the publication.
“Joyland” beat off several other strong entries, including Close by Belgian director Lukas Dhont and Tchaikovsky’s Wife by Kirill Serebrennikov, both hot contenders for the Cannes Festival’s top Palme d’Or award which will be announced on Saturday.
“Joyland” left Cannes audiences slack-jawed and admiring and got a standing ovation from the opening night’s crowd.
Part of the surprise stemmed from the discovery by many at Cannes that Pakistan is one of the first nations to have given legal protection against discrimination to transgender people. In 2009, Pakistan legally recognised the third sex, and in 2018 the first transgender passport was issued.
“Pakistan is very schizophrenic, almost bipolar,” director Saim Sadiq told the outlet in an interview. “You get, of course, prejudice and some violence against a particular community on the one hand, but you also get this very progressive law which basically allows everyone to identify their own gender, and also identifies the third gender,” he said.
