irector Saim Sadiq had an amazing birthday surprise in March, when he received a message from Cannes, three days after submitting his feature debut. Joyland was set to premiere at Cannes as the first Pakistani film ever picked for the festival’s official selection with 14 movies in the Uncertain Regard category. Cannes only takes in a limited number of films in the said category, and it is a moment of immense pleasure that a Pakistani film made the cut.

Saim is currently concluding his MFA at the Columbia University School of Arts with a background in anthropology. Earlier, his documentary work has been showcased by various national networks on television. It has thrilled social media in Pakistan; and has been featured by BBC’s Free Speech Stories. To say that it was the first time his work was being featured and recognised globally would be a disservice to Pakistani art and cinematics.

His first short film, Pasban (2017) was screened at numerous festivals around the globe. Nice Talking to You (2018) was awarded Vimeo’s Best Director along with five other awards at the 2018 Columbia University thesis film showcase. Saim Sadiq was also the recipient of the Kodak Student Scholarship Gold Award in 2018 when he was selected as the top winner from students across the world. His first feature, Gulaab, was accepted at the Open Doors Hub at the Locarno Film Festival 2018. At the Cannes, his film was received with a standing ovation.

Joyland, co-produced by Sarmad Khoosat, is a daring exploration of relations in a Pakistani joint family. A young man falls for an ambitious trans starlet in an erotic dance theatre. The film highlights the tension in a Pakistani family suffocated by societal conventions. Pakistan may just as well have beaten India with a feature film starring an attractive transwoman as the key protagonist. I have no idea what it’s like to screen a film at Cannes, but I know the feeling – the pride and pleasure of finally sharing your work with an audience for the first time, after years of working on it, in your head and in real life.

Sharing her joy for being a part of Joyland, Sarwat Gillani says, “They say it takes a village but what it really takes is a team of well-meaning solid individuals to make it happen.”

“I came from a morally upright, middle-class conservative family. And then there was this other world that existed literally at a 10-minute drive from my house that I never knew of. It’s so different, the world of the theatre, where sexuality is not such a taboo, where women can get on stage and be in such positions of power, where this is a certain form of erotica,” says Saim Sadiq.

Iram Parveen fondly applauds the team of Joyland. “I am present today to stand by my brother Saim Sadiq, and the entire team of Joyland as I’ve since we met the first time in 2018. May you rise and shine and create a spotlight so bright that it not only elevates you but also blazes the path, slams open the doors and shatters the ceilings of have-nots and can-nots and should-nots. May this be a reckoning to the world that Pakistani creators are here to stay, and to be the first to tell their stories.”

The cast and crew represented the country at the glamourous event.

Other stars of the media fraternity, including actor Osman Khalid Butt and film director Nabeel Qureshi, have been showering congratulatory messages on the Joyland team.

Siddhant Adlakha, an actor, filmmaker and television writer from across the border is all praise for Joyland. “It is as daring as it is gentle. A story of a family man and the trans dancer he falls for; it excavates the way gendered structures can erode people’s sense of being. This work feels fully alive.”

Sadiq says he drew inspiration from his own family and a theatre close to their home in Lahore. “I came from a very morally upright, middle-class conservative family. And then there was this other world that existed literally at a 10-minute drive from my house that I never knew of. It’s so different, the world of the theatre, where sexuality is not such a taboo, where women can get on stage and be in such positions of power, where this is a form of erotica,” he says.

Pakistan has one of the most progressive transgender cultures in the world. In 2018, Pakistan passed a landmark transgender rights bill that provides the country’s trans citizens with fundamental rights, including prohibiting discrimination and harassment against them in education and society, allowing them to obtain driving licenses and passports and to change their gender in the national database.

“They were always a part of the world that we lived in. They brought a certain sense of colour and flamboyance and an owning up of desire in a certain way,” says Sadiq. He says that the progress of Pakistan’s transgender community has been so rapid that he had to pause while writing the script because some narratives about them were no longer accurate or relevant.

“From the time they were struggling, and had all these superstitions associated with them, to now, when they are actresses, doctors and news anchors, it’s a huge shift that I’ve been fortunate enough to see in my life,” Sadiq says.

The project entailed so many firsts, and so many young people taking the absolute lead that it is unarguably the finest portrayal of Pakistani cinema; a delightfully proud moment for Pakistan.

The writer is the    publishing editor at Liberty Books