IFFK rejected Pakistan’s Joyland – I didn’t know people were “so dying to see it”, says Kerala fest’s artistic director

The award-winning Pakistani film _Joyland_ made it to the Oscars shortlists announced on Thursday, just days after the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) 2022 wrapped up in Thiruvananthapuram. What’s the connection, you ask? Answer: IFFK was an overall success (despite the flak the festival’s director, Ranjith, is facing for his derogatory comments about the audience during and after the event), but well-wishers of this highly respected festival would do well to note one of its big misses this year that has so far escaped public scrutiny. [caption id=“attachment_11860621” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Ranjith[/caption] The exclusion of Saim Sadiq’s _Joyland_ from the Kerala fest was contrary to expectations and surprising considering IFFK’s reputation for bagging all the most acclaimed and awarded films on the global festival circuit each year. While there is no rule that a film cannot be skipped despite being feted across continents, the reason for Joyland’s absence from IFFK 2022 – as revealed by the festival’s artistic director in an interview to this reporter – should cause concern among cinephiles nationwide who have grown to admire IFFK for its gravitas, perspective on cinema, unabashed political stands and commitment to quality. The Urdu-Punjabi Joyland tells the story of a family in Lahore whose son, a married man, falls in love with a transgender dancer. This is an excerpt from _Firstpost_’s review of _Joyland_ by this reporter: “In these divisive times, it is worth pondering over the many commonalities between our two countries – our  failings included – as are reflected in this wonderfully sensitive chronicle of friendship and love, longing and loneliness, sexuality, desire, enforced gender roles, and the everydayness behind which prejudice, repression and oppression thrive.” Joyland made history this year by becoming the first Pakistani film to be premiered at the Festival de Cannes in France, where it won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section and the Queer Palm, an independent award for the best LGBT-themed film on the programme. Since then, it has been celebrated across the world, winning a Best Film from the Subcontinent Award at the Indian Film Festival Of Melbourne and the Young Cinema Award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. Its journey in the subcontinent though has been rocky. Joyland was selected as Pakistan’s entry for the Best International Feature Film race at the 2023 Oscars, but for release in its home country it had to submit to Censor-dictated cuts, faced conservative outrage and bans. The producers fought the bans and it finally got to theatres in most parts of Pakistan last month but remains unreleased even now in Punjab province. The hurdle in its path in India is far less dramatic. IFFK’s artistic director Deepika Suseelan, when asked by this reporter why Joyland was not at the festival, said she personally rejected it because “it’s pretty long… it was quite dragging, you know, where the people will lose interest after 20 minutes” and “I didn’t find that people were so dying to watch the film”.

To not like a film that has been loved wherever it has been screened is perfectly acceptable. It is inexcusable though for an individual in such a critical position to consider their personal opinion reason enough to reject such a film despite its cultural and socio-political significance; to be unaware of that significance and equally unaware of audience interest in it despite the crowds it has drawn at festivals across the world. The result is that IFFK lost the opportunity to potentially host this prestigious project’s India premiere, which ultimately went to the well-regarded but smaller Dharamshala International Film Festival in November. Joyland drew packed halls at Dharamshala. IFFK’s Deepika says she did not know of this. The film was also on the programme of the Kolkata International Film Festival that concluded yesterday. 2022 has been a turbulent year for IFFK. The festival is organised by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy that comes under the Department of Cultural Affairs of the Kerala government. Ranjith took charge as the Academy’s head and IFFK’s director this January. Deepika was appointed artistic director of IFFK as recently as August 2022, after the term of the previous artistic director – the National Award winning veteran film editor Bina Paul – came to an end. Bina was in the position (her designation was different for a while) through most of IFFK’s existence, and is held in high esteem for establishing it as the country’s premier festival with a standing in the global filmmaking community. Sources close to IFFK believe that Bina was not given an extension and/or not urged to stay on because of her activism with the Kerala-based Women In Cinema Collective (WCC) that has taken on not only the most powerful forces in the Malayalam film industry since its formation in 2017 but, in the last couple of years, also the Government of Kerala run by the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF). In particular, it is believed that the matter was sealed after a charged meeting this May between, among others, WCC members including Bina and state government representatives including the then Cultural Affairs Minister Saji Cheriyan, with the two sides clashing over the non-publication of the report by the Justice Hema Committee that was set up to study problems in the Malayalam film industry after the rape of a woman actor in 2017. [caption id=“attachment_11860671” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Bina Paul[/caption] In the shadow of these developments, Deepika – who was on Bina’s team – stepped into her new role. Shortly after the promotion came into effect, this reporter can confirm that a senior member of Deepika’s team was approached by one of Joyland’s producers who evinced interest in sending the film to IFFK. Deepika previewed the film and says she unilaterally turned it down without conferring with the officially designated selection committee of the festival’s World Cinema section because she thought the film “was all over the place” and “I had three films…based on the same transgender” (sic). Repeat: a contrarian opinion on a celebrated film is perfectly acceptable, but Deepika’s observations show a limited perspective on, among other things, the politics of cinema, and a lack of awareness of the year’s festival trends. During the course of an interview to this reporter, Deepika first says she did not like Joyland, but later that she was confused and sought the opinions of other international festival programmers; at some point though, she says she did not consult her own selection committee because, “When I have not given importance to a film, why would I discuss with others?” Excerpts from the interview with Deepika Suseelan that started out being about the festival at large but ended up being focused on Joyland because of the content of her comments: Did you get time to watch some films at the festival? I watched and curated all the films, except for the Malayalam and Indian films (shown in the Malayalam Cinema Today and Indian Cinema Now sections) that were totally selected by the selection committee – I watched only the selected films. But International Competition, World Cinema, other sections, it’s all seen by me. This is your first IFFK as artistic director. How has it been for you? Really amazing. People generally ask me this question of replacing Bina Ma’am since she’d been doing it for the past 25 years, but I didn’t feel that pressure in any ways because I started my career assisting her in 2010 and I worked with her while she was here. In between two years she wasn’t there, she resigned, and I did the programming that year. Indu Shrikent was a programme director at that point, but she doesn’t know the Kerala audience. When she came I’d already started the programming, so she said, “You know the audience, better you do it.” She was there, seeing what I’m doing. There was a major shift in the kind of selection, obviously, previously it was done by Bina Ma’am, and I’m from a different generation and that will reflect in our choices. So that edition was successful. When the media congratulated Indu for doing an amazing edition, she revealed that I did the programming. That’s the first time I got attention from the circle of programmers for doing something independently. So yeah, then I was here till 2017 IDSFFK (the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala), so for this longest period I’m familiar with Kerala audience’s tastes. That helped me, so it didn’t feel like “Oh, am I going to do something wrong?” or being worried about my own selection. I was confident that I know the audience, so it became easy for me. Then I did the 50th IFFI (the International Film Festival of India) in 2019 as the programming head. I wasn’t given the title of artistic director, but that was my job. The international sections and  international jury was all done by me, and I brought Isabelle Huppert to India for the Lifetime Achievement Award. So I’m coming from an in-a-way-big festival with experience that has helped me while doing IFFK, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to bring Bela Tarr in 2 months. I joined as artistic director on August August 22nd, but with IDSFFK on at the time, Onam holidays and so on, we started planning for IFFK only by mid-September and locked the programme by November 1st. Literally, I had only two months to do the entire programming. That was possible because I have been good in situations where I had to do the work of so many people together without even somebody to assist me. It’s been 12 years for me. Whatever I have gone through, whatever tremendous pressure I had to take in, that all helped me with something like this. So what was the prep that had been done since the last IFFK in March? (There were two IFFKs in 2022 to catch up, since an edition was skipped in 2020 due to the pandemic.) Nothing. After the March edition they focused on IDSFFK. Entries for IFFK were invited only two weeks before I joined. We didn’t have programmers from outside this year, no curators, no support from outside. All the curated sections and World Cinema section are done by me. So why did you reject Joyland? It wasn’t rejected. I had three films for the World Cinema section based on the same transgender, you know that particular thing. So I watched all three and I liked Paloma more. It was my personal choice. And A Place Of Our Own (Ek Jagah Apni) was already placed in the International Competition section. Do you have to restrict the number of films on the LGBTQ community? No, because there are so many films on LGBTQ. There are actually so many films dealing with the same, particularly transgender if we take out, you know there is lesbian, gay, different segments. In the World Cinema section, you have to accommodate so much content, so you come to a point that you know all these cater to LGBT, so then you look for, okay there is nothing particular that focuses on a transgender thing. So then I decided. Because when you go after the major festival films like Cannes and Berlin winners and all the major films that delegates are waiting to watch, we won’t be left with much options to accommodate our selection. At some point you have to decide from three or four films on the same topic. For me personally, I liked Paloma more, and for me, Joyland was taking too much time. Meaning? Yeah, it’s pretty long, it was all over the place, it was quite dragging, you know, where the people will lose interest after 20 minutes. So when you go for quality, when you know this is the perfect film for that, for me I felt Paloma. And Paloma received good reviews also. Did you see the reception Joyland got at the Dharamshala festival? Yeah. The audience was totally in love with it. Yeah. So how did you assess that people would have lost interest in Joyland after 20 minutes? It’s subjective. Sometimes people like certain films. Sometimes I’ve found a film amazing, but the audience didn’t. But as a curator, if I’ve to choose, I personally like Paloma. So this was your decision. Yeah yeah, my decision yeah. IFFK is known for making statements. Would it not have been a statement to screen a Pakistani film with so many firsts in its bag? Even if you didn’t personally like it? See, when you’re really confused about a film, when I’m stuck with multiple options, you go for people who you know make the right choice. When I’m confused, I ask for opinions of other international programmers. Like, we’re all friends. So we discussed it and I had three or four people seconding my opinion. So that’s how Paloma was chosen. I recall that when I reviewed Joyland, some Malayalam filmmakers wrote to me saying they are waiting to watch this film and they’re just assuming it will be at IFFK. I didn’t get that. I didn’t find that people were so dying to watch the film. It never reached me. If you were aware that there was interest, would you have selected it? Yeah. There are films which are shown in every festival but I myself was sure that it’s not worthy, not something people would love. At the end of the day, why are you programming it? For the audience. So when you yourself are aware the movie is not good and the reviews are also saying so, it’s not done well in other festivals, but still you programme because I know there is no other opportunity for them to watch it in a theatre. Like The Whale, which  had mixed reviews. So it’s all subjective. But there are films which we actually know is not good enough, maybe you can give that slot to some other filmmaker. There are also limits to the number of films you can accommodate in a film festival. There was a time that I used to believe that if a master filmmaker has done a film which didn’t come out well, there is no need to programme that film, you can give that opportunity to a new filmmaker, especially when you’re working around the slots. But I know that at IFFK, people will come searching for certain films, no matter what I think about it, no matter what the reviews are. That’s why we showed Kim Ki-duk’s Call of God. It’s not a great film, it didn’t have a good reception, but still we showed it at IFFK because people would love to watch Kim Ki-duk’s last film and it’s not going to be on any OTT. Accessibility is another thing – I’m sure Joyland will be on an OTT very soon, but Paloma will never be. Festivals are in a way catering to films and filmmakers who need a platform. So a popular movie that everybody is aware of, like Lijo Jose Pellissery’s film, you have seen the crowd, it’s all because they want to watch it first, but if you think about it, the movie is getting released. But still they are dying to watch it. When you’re a programmer and you’re working around slots, there are times you have to think, okay everybody knows about this movie,  everybody is going to watch this movie. At the end of the day because they’re dying to watch it, they’ll find out a way to watch it, so why don’t you just programme another film which is really good. So in Joyland’s case, what was it – that you felt people were dying to watch it and will find it anyway, or that you didn’t think they were interested enough in Kerala? No no. As you said, there are a lot of specialities associated with Joyland. I am aware of that too. But at that point I had no clue that people are dying to watch it. You didn’t see the audience at Dharamshala? No, no, I didn’t follow Dharamshala. Sometimes there are things associated with your life also. I lost my Mom in May. I’m sorry to hear that. After the 50thIFFI, I didn’t go back because my Mom got diagnosed with cancer. I was taking care of her. The only commitment I gave during that 1½ years was that I was in the international jury for 6-7 festivals abroad, since in COVID times I could watch from home and didn’t have to travel. Then I took up Durban International Film Festival as a programmer – again, I can work from home. While I was doing Durban, I was focused only on that because my Mom was literally dying. I could see her dying in front of my eyes. I was the only caregiver at home. So this year I didn’t follow Cannes, Berlin or any major festival the way a programmer does. I finished my Durban commitment, I lost my Mom in between, then I got a call from Chalachitra Academy about the artistic director’s post, and I took it up because this is my Mom’s dream. She always wanted to see me in this position because she has seen me struggle,  how people played politics on me, how people played with my future and the drastic decisions I had to take, I being somebody who’s not ready to quit because I know how good I am and how far I can work hard to improve myself every day. So I have strong faith in myself, because of which I don’t go by the opinion of others. If somebody says, “You are not good enough for this”, I’m like, “Okay, I’m leaving, I’m going to prove myself.” I made the  decision and I performed in a way that the organisers of IFFI had faith in me to do a landmark edition like the 50th IFFI. Let’s forget what is going on right now with that festival. But at that point it was IFFI, the country’s official festival. It has an Advisory Board of eminent Indian filmmakers. They chose me to do the 50th IFFI, which proves by itself that I’m capable. And I did the festival. So you know, you have your own journey that way. So when I was given this opportunity to be IFFK’s artistic director, my first thought was that I didn’t follow festivals much this year. On the other hand, I’m like, “No, this is my Mom’s dream, she always wanted to see this, I just lost her so I should take this up. Maybe I’ll have to work hard day and night.” I can say that from August 22nd I have not slept for more than three hours. But certain information was missed here and there. I didn’t follow the Dharamsala Festival. I missed the fact that everybody is dying to watch Joyland. We have rejected major award winners from other festivals. Every award winner doesn’t give you the confidence that this is a good film. You watch it and decide whether your audience will like it or not. My approach to every film was like that. And then you have slots to play around. Joyland was like any other film for me. It didn’t come with the significance of, like, you know. Did you consult your selection committee about this decision? When I have not given importance to a film, why would I discuss with others? Kerala is pretty open-minded about a lot of things, but I just want to clarify one point: there was no issue with it being a Pakistani film, was there? Absolutely not. Even the organisers have no clue there was an entry like this. (Note: The interview continues, ending with Deepika answering questions about her vision for IFFK, the need for the festival to have a serious film market and other matters.) Readers who follow IFFK would know its reputation for taking tough political positions. Just this year, a Spirit of Cinema Award was conferred on Iranian filmmaker Mahnaz Mohammadi even as her country is in the throes of a women-led revolution. Ranjith declared on stage that the award should be viewed as nothing short of a statement. Screening _Joyland_ at IFFK at a time when India-Pakistan cultural exchanges are at an all-time low would have been no less a statement. As it turns out, the film was excluded from IFFK not because the festival organisers chose to be apolitical. It was excluded because one individual just did not get it. Read Anna M.M. Vetticad’s review of Joyland: **“Beautifully told tale of soul-crushing patriarchy and LGBTphobia in Lahore”** Anna M.M. Vetticad is an award-winning journalist and author of The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. She specialises in the intersection of cinema with feminist and other socio-political concerns. Twitter: @annavetticad, Instagram: @annammvetticad, Facebook: AnnaMMVetticadOfficial