Joyland
ジョイランド わたしの願い
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A married man in Lahore joins an erotic dance troupe led by a trans woman; banned, unbanned, then banned again in Punjab.
In inner-city Lahore the Ranas live three generations under one roof, ruled by the widowed patriarch, Amanullah, who wants a grandson. His elder son, Saleem, and Saleem's wife, Nucchi, have just had a fourth daughter. His younger son, Haider, has been out of work for years and helps with the housework, while Haider's wife, Mumtaz, works as a make-up artist at a salon, a job she loves. Through a friend, Haider is hired as a backup dancer at an erotic dance theatre, behind Biba, a trans woman fighting for her place on the bill. Told only that his son has found work, Amanullah orders Mumtaz to give up hers.
Haider falls for Biba. He helps her get a life-size cut-out of herself made for the theatre, visits her flat and learns that the blood on her the day he first glimpsed her, at a hospital, was another trans woman's, shot dead in front of her. They kiss. At home Mumtaz, shut in with the housework and seeing less and less of her husband, grows restless; one night she and Nucchi slip out to the Joyland amusement park. Mumtaz learns she is pregnant with a boy, tells Nucchi she feels like running away, then laughs it off. Even Amanullah's gentle friendship with a widowed neighbour, Fayyaz, is condemned by her son as a disgrace.
When Biba and Haider finally go to bed together and he wants to take the receptive role, Biba throws him out in fury and tells him never to come back. He goes home and weeps when Mumtaz tells him they are having a son.
After Amanullah's seventieth birthday party, Mumtaz takes her own life. Biba comes to the funeral. Saleem condemns the dead woman for killing her unborn son; Nucchi turns on him and says the whole family is to blame. In a memory, Haider, before their arranged wedding, asks Mumtaz whether she wants to marry him, and she agrees, on one condition: that she can go on working. In the present, Haider leaves Lahore for the first time, reaches the sea and wades out into the waves.
Starring
Ali Junejoas Haider
The Ranas' gentle younger son, long unemployed, who takes a job as a backup dancer and falls in love with Biba.
Haider’s story
Haider keeps house with Nucchi while his wife, Mumtaz, goes out to work, and other men laugh at him for it. Hired as a backup dancer at an erotic theatre, he tells his family he is a manager, and when his father orders Mumtaz to give up her job, he does not fight for her. He cannot dance at first. He learns. He helps Biba get the life-size cut-out she wants, and one night, having told her he has never left Lahore, he goes home, asks Mumtaz about the sea, and goes back to kiss Biba. When he tries to take the receptive role in bed, Biba throws him out. He weeps when Mumtaz tells him they are having a son. After her death he leaves Lahore for the first time, reaches the sea and wades out into the waves.
Alina Khanas Biba
A trans woman and erotic dancer who fights for her place on stage and wants to be loved as the woman she is.
Biba’s story
Biba is kept to the interval, dancing for an audience that barely watches her. She argues with the manager over a life-size cut-out of herself like the other dancers', and gets one made with Haider's help. A man gropes her at an event; when the backup dancers pester Haider with questions about her body, she tears into them. She lets Haider close. She tells him the blood on her when he first saw her, at the hospital, was another trans woman's, shot dead in front of her; they talk about the sea and kiss. When the power fails mid-show, they dance on and win the crowd. But when he tries to take the receptive role in bed, she throws him out in fury and tells him never to come back to her or the theatre. She comes to Mumtaz's funeral.
Rasti Farooqas Mumtaz
Haider's wife, a make-up artist who loves her work and is made to give it up once he finds a job.
Mumtaz’s story
When Haider finds work, his father orders Mumtaz to stay home, and Haider does not stand up for her. She keeps house beside Nucchi and sees less and less of Haider, who now works nights. One night she and Nucchi slip out to the Joyland amusement park. Then she learns she is carrying a boy. The family rejoices; she tells Nucchi she feels like running away, and laughs it off. When she tells Haider, he weeps. After Amanullah's seventieth birthday party she takes her own life. At her funeral Saleem condemns her for killing her unborn son, and Nucchi tells him the whole family is to blame. She is last seen in Haider's memory: before their arranged wedding he asked whether she wanted to marry him, and she said yes, on one condition, that she could go on working.
Sarwat Gilanias Nucchi
The elder son's wife and mother of four daughters, who runs the household and becomes Mumtaz's closest companion.
Salmaan Peerzadaas Rana Amanullah
The widowed patriarch, confined to a wheelchair, who rules the family and longs for a grandson.
Sania Saeedas Fayyaz
A widowed neighbour and friend of the family, whose companionship with Amanullah her son treats as a disgrace.
Why it matters
Joyland shows how a family's idea of honour, and a society's idea of what a man and a woman must be, crush everyone inside them, the men included. Mumtaz loses her work, then her husband's attention, then her will to live; Haider cannot be the man his father demands; Biba, a trans woman, is desired on stage and despised off it; even the patriarch is denied a gentle friendship. It was the first Pakistani film to premiere at Cannes, where it won the Un Certain Regard jury prize and the Queer Palm. At home the government banned it shortly before release, citing complaints; a committee cleared it with minor cuts, but it remains banned in Punjab, the province of Lahore, where it is set. What stays is its tenderness. No one here is a villain, and almost no one is free.