At the ongoing Cannes Film Festival in France, the first Pakistani film ‘Joyland’ won the hearts of the audience, on which the director and actors of the film not only expressed happiness but also expressed hope that the Pakistani audience would also like to see it. .
When a film about the daring theme of a transgender dancer in a Muslim country premiered at Cannes this week, the audience in the auditorium gave it a standing ovation.
According to Reuters, the film is the story of a man who is the youngest son of his patriarchal family and whose father expects his wife to give birth to a son after three daughters. But he instead becomes part of a theater troupe and falls in love with its director, a transgender woman.
Variety magazine praised the film, writing: ‘So fresh, we’re constantly surprised’, while film review website Deadline described the film as ‘thought-provoking, well-made and engaging’. gave
According to the news agency AFP, many people at the film festival were surprised to learn that Pakistan was among the first countries to provide legal protection against discrimination to transgender people.
Pakistan recognized transgender people as a third gender in 2009, and in 2018 the first passport was issued with transgender in the gender box.
Director Saeem Sadiq told AFP in an interview: ‘Pakistan is a very turbulent country with two extremes. Of course you get prejudice against a certain gender on the one hand, but you also get this progressive law where basically everyone has the freedom to identify their gender and identify as a third gender. can be identified.’
He said: ‘This law is being fully implemented? Of course not. But it has only been four years since the change in legislation began.’
Saim Sadiq says that before the establishment of British rule in India in the 19th century, eunuchs were not victims of deprivation.
According to Sadiq: ‘He was associated with art and poetry. They were the people who were called upon to teach manners to the royal family and to educate the princes and princesses. It was their place in society.’
Sadiq further said that today, transgenders in Pakistan do not live as freely as they do in France. But the situation is not the same as one thinks about the Muslim world. On some levels, transgender people are more independent than you might expect.’
He said: ‘Joyland’ makes it clear that transgender women face many of the same problems as women assigned at birth in Pakistan where, unlike all other people, normal sex Men with the tendency have more freedom to test their desires.’
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Says Sadiq: ‘There is, however, an important difference between natal women and transgender women. Women are struggling against being confined to the home and the situation is almost the opposite for transgender women, they are trying to make their own space inside the home. They are fighting to stay with their families to avoid being pushed onto the streets.’
In the film, the eunuch dancer Biba was played by Aleena Khan, who is also an eunuch.
Not being a professional actress, she auditioned for a role in Saeem Sadiq’s short-lived film ‘Darling’ in 2019 through an NGO. He got an opportunity to work in the film and started working with the director.
Alina Khan told AFP: ‘My character Biba and my struggles are similar but Biba is more angry than me.’
Aleena Khan saw ‘Joyland’ for the first time in Cannes. She told AFP that she felt proud and emotional after watching the film.
She said: ‘I tried to keep them (pride and emotions) together because I didn’t want to make a mess but the reception was fantastic. Some people in the audience started crying and then I couldn’t control myself and started crying myself.’
Pakistani actress Aleena Khan in an interview during the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France on May 25 (AFP)
Aleena Khan hopes that people will love to watch it once it is released.
He said: ‘This film has everything. Men, women and gender politics and a variety of issues that almost everyone can relate to. The audience in Pakistan will be able to understand this film and the messages hidden in it.’
He said that the main message of the film about transgender people was that ‘transgender people can do anything they want to do. Like any man or woman.’
Sarwat Gilani, who starred in the film, told Reuters in an interview that it was all like a dream come true.
He said: ‘You imagine a national award, but this, to represent Pakistan on such a big stage, on a platform like the Cannes Film Festival, it’s unbelievable. It felt like all the hard work people put in, The difficulties we face as artists in Pakistan are its fruits.’
He said that independent cinema in Pakistan is not so popular that even big names work in such films.
With dad in the can, she is going back to Pakistan with hope. ‘I am hopeful that at least our people will understand that this is also a kind of cinema that can succeed. Not globally, but locally. So this is a hope we are going back home with.
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