Cannes 2022: 'I have been living with Joyland for seven years,' says director Saim Sadiq

It’s a year the Cannes film festival actively returned to its full physical form after the pandemic-imposed restrictions are finally lifted. Despite the pizazz of big-ticket red-carpet events that attracted hordes of celebrities from Hollywood and international cinema, alongside social media influencers, one hidden gem in the Un Certain Regard, a sidebar section of the film festival, still managed to capture everyone’s attention. It received around 10 minutes of standing ovation from the audience and even bagged the Jury prize in the Un Certain Regard category. It’s Pakistan’s debut at the film festival, _Joyland_ , an immersive family drama with subtle undertones of themes of sexual awakening and a woman’s place in a conservative family. “My life will forever be divided into pre and post Joyland,” Saim Sadiq its young director told the audience in a moving opening speech. His earlier short film Darling (2019) about a trans performer, won Venice Film Festival’s Best Short Film award.

Here he talks about his own family, decision to cast a real trans person in the film and what his expectations are from the South Asian audience when the film releases in the region. You said in an interview that you also come from a morally upright and conservative family, like the one in Joyland. What was their response to the film? They haven’t seen Joyland yet, but they were very responsive to Darling because everybody likes trans rights. They were a little annoyed with the choice of songs because the songs were pretty suggestive in Darling, even more so than Joyland. The only thing (wrt. Joyland) they told me was to have better songs. I cannot control their reaction to Joyland but one doesn’t know honestly, they could really surprise me by having a weird moment of understanding. How did you create Haider’s character? Because he’s the antithesis of a South Asian male portrayed in films, he’s perfectly content with domesticity and the fact that his wife Mumtaz is employed and he’s not. These people did not come to me overnight, I spent seven years working on these characters. Even though the germ that was Haider’s character has always been there, a lot of things evolved and shaped into what you see him today. It was the toughest thing to write. A character like Mumtaz was the easiest for me to write, she has been the same person she was when I started writing her. Her core and how she operates in the world have been the same. As with Biba. Haider was tricky because he is such a passive character and doesn’t speak a lot so to it’s tough to understand a person like that, as opposed to the chatty characters who reveal themselves quickly. I have to say that with Haider, Ali Junejo, played a huge part. He came onboard six / seven months ago. He took Haider and turned him into a real person. Haider evolved more as Ali took him on and played him in such a way that gives you more insight into his character. There are things there that you can use from his performance to understand Haider better, in another actor’s hands it ran the risk of turning into a bland and passive role. Let’s talk about Haider’s exploration of his own sexuality and his relationship with trans girl Biba? I was careful not to categorize Haider. Lot of people come out and say, “you talk about his sexuality in absolute terms.” But he never said that in the film, neither did I. Again, there is a need for us to label him as if he’d be less understandable without that label. The kind of flux he’s in the film is because the world is a harsh place for people who don’t want to subscribe to labels, whether it’s gender or sexuality labels. We’re all pretty aware of the flipsides of those labels and I’m not sure there’s a particular benefit to it. I think he’s lacking that awareness at least for the most part of the film but in the end, when he has it, he hasn’t shared it with us, and I don’t think he needs to. On the decision to cast a trans person in the role. Four years ago, when I was a student desperate to make a short film, I auditioned trans girls and when I couldn’t find anyone suitable for the role, I ended up casting a boy. He was the best of the lot, a good actor but it wasn’t really working. I spent a whole month and a half in workshops, but it still felt weird. Five days before the shoot, I took him to Alina’s house because my casting director Sana recommended that Alina is a good dancer, and he can pick up the nuances of dancing. That’s how we met her and while I was teaching him, I thought why not just cast Alina. For Joyland it wasn’t a question because I learnt by practice. I didn’t do it because it’s politically correct, but because it’s better for my film. What are your expectations from the South Asian audience? Joyland sounds like a film that might be more sensational than it actually is. But structurally it’s a family drama with a love story and three songs – a lot of things the South Asians really like. Plus, it’s doing a couple of other things that might make you uncomfortable but I’m quite hopeful. It normalizes the idea of desire and doesn’t want to pigeonhole identity. Prathap Nair is an independent culture features writer based in Germany. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.