Pakistan bans its Oscar contender; Filmmaking community reacts

A week before its release, Pakistan’s Oscar entry, Saim Sadiq’s Joyland, has been banned in its homeland. An order from the country’s information and broadcasting ministry dated November 11 states that the film had been presented to Central Board of Film Censors Islamabad and granted a certificate on 17 August 2022. However, it was now being uncertified for “whole of Pakistan cinemas” following a comprehensive inquiry into written complaints on the film. 

“Written complaints were received that the film contains highly objectionable material which do not conform with the social values and moral standards of our society and is clearly repugnant to the norms of ‘decency and morality’ as laid down in Section 9 of the Motion Picture Ordinance, 1979,” the order states.

Set in Lahore, the love story of Haider (Ali Junejo), the youngest son of Rana family and the transgender dancer Biba (Alina Khan), is a tender yet trenchant critique of patriarchy.

The film was due to release in Pakistan on November 18 and had got an ecstatic response at its India premiere on November 5 at Dharamshala International Film Festival with an additional on-demand—that too houseful—show the following day. 

The ban brings to focus the state of censorship in Pakistan and casts a shadow over Joyland’s future at the Oscars where it is in the running in the Best International Feature Film category. The producers of the film are yet to come up with an official statement. They tell Cinema Express that they were “figuring things out for now”. “We will have more information on Monday/Tuesday,” they said. 

In an interview at Cannes, filmmaker Saim Sadiq had said that the characters of the film came to him first before the plot itself because they became a way to explore certain things that he felt strongly about. “Like patriarchy. Like the idea of desire, which is such a primal thing to everyone but is still somehow taboo,” he had said. It’s these very issues that he engages with that seem to have upset the conservative forces in the country. 

The call for a ban on the film had been growing shrill in the last few weeks. Jamaat-e-Islami senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan had objected to the film for being against “Pakistani social values” and the institution of marriage and for its portrayal of homosexuality. “Joyland not only shows an extramarital affair between two men but also encourages gender transition surgery,” says designer Maria B who has been at the head of the #BanJoyland campaign.  

Popular actor Sarwat Gilani, who plays a pivotal role in the film, took to Twitter against such homophobic and transphobic objections and started a #ReleaseJoyland crusade. “There’s a paid smear campaign doing the rounds against Joyland, a film that made history for Pakistani cinema, got passed by all censor boards but now authorities are caving into pressure from some malicious people who have not even seen the film,” she tweeted, adding, “Shameful that a Pakistani film made by 200 Pakistanis over 6 years that got standing ovations from Toronto to Cairo to Cannes is being hindered in its own country. Don’t take away this moment of pride and joy from our people! No one’s forcing anyone to watch it! So don’t force anyone to not watch it either! Pakistani viewers are smart enough to know what they want to watch or not. Let Pakistanis decide! Don’t insult their intelligence and our hard work!

The Pakistani filmmaking community is expectedly upset at the ban. “Why are films that are honest depictions of the devastation of patriarchy banned while films that perpetuate patriarchy celebrated? It is a devastating state of affairs. My heart weeps for the artistes in the country,” says Pakistani-Canadian filmmaker Arshad Khan, who just months back was shedding tears of joy at the Cannes Film Festival where Joyland began its glorious run with the premiere in Un Certain Regard section where it didn’t just mark Pakistan’s debut but also walked away with the jury prize. It also bagged the queer palm, an independently sponsored prize for the queer films in the festival. The widely acclaimed film went on to play at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Busan International Film Festival, among others. Its latest achievement has been the Young Cinema award at the prestigious Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
The ban comes at a time when the ailing and emaciated Pakistani film industry has been having an unexpectedly wonderful year at the movies. Joyland was heralded as the break of a new dawn in Pakistani cinema. Bilal Lashari’s The Legend of Maula Jatt was released worldwide last month, smashing all box office records. There had been the hope that this would increase production of films, improve production standards in the Pakistani film industry and open possibilities to tell all kinds of stories. The ban takes Pakistani cinema two steps back after a step forward. 

The country has had a terrible track record with censorship. One of the producers of Joyland, Sarmad Khoosat, has not been able to release Zindagi Tamasha (Circus of Life) till today due to pressure from the religious lobby, despite winning the Kim Ji-Seok award at the Busan Film Festival in 2019. “The film should have been titled ‘the circus that is Pakistan’ instead,” said Khan. When he took his own celebrated, deeply personal documentary about immigration and identity, Abu, to Pakistan in 2019, for a cross-country tour, some military people threatened to shut down any venue that dared show the film, he tells CE. “In 2020 I showed it under the radar in private venues. The distributors told me the censor boards will never pass the film,” he says. 

Independent Pakistani filmmaker Iram Parveen Bilal, caught in a busy shoot, said that she needed to give time and thought to this new development. But she does tell CE: “I am not surprised at all because it is Pakistan.” The CBFC had banned her film I’ll Meet You There, in March this year, a week ahead of its scheduled release in the country for its supposedly negative portrayal of Muslims and Pakistani culture. 

Karachi-based designer and socio-cultural commentator Mohsin Sayeed says that Pakistani people must protest censorship which according to him doesn’t work on any specific procedure, but “just whims and morality”. “The global film community needs to band together and find ways to support and restore the struggle of courageous Pakistani filmmakers,” says Khan.

The immediate concern is the chance of Joyland at the Oscars now. To qualify in its category, it must be shown in the home country. The film had got a leg up with Nobel laureate and activist Malala Yousafzai coming on board as executive producer and recently featured as a frontrunner in Indiewire’s predictions for the category. It would be a real pity if Pakistan’s strongest shot at the Oscars loses out on the advantage now. There is this thought that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences might accept Joyland because the film did get the censor certificate and the producers had intentions to release it. The film can still qualify for Golden Globes and British Academy Film Awards, ie, the BAFTAs.

There has already been some talk about totally overhauling the international feature film category at the Oscars. Peter Debruge in his article in Variety had pointed out that “the choice of which film to submit is made by an easily corruptible committee with different rules and standards in each country”. Whatever be the fate of the film now, its own country’s antipathy for Joyland will definitely bolster this call for a radical change.