Sadiq’s screenplay navigates a complex web of secrets and lies, pressures and prejudices to create a soulful human drama intent on challenging narrow minds.
Joyland
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Pakistan · 2022
2h 7m
Director Saim Sadiq
Starring Ali Junejo, Rasti Farooq, Alina Khan, Sarwat Gilani
Genre Drama, Romance
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
In inner-city Lahore, a patriarchal family yearns for the birth of a baby boy to continue the family line. Meanwhile, the youngest son takes a job as a backup dancer in a Bollywood-style burlesque and quickly becomes infatuated with the strong-willed trans woman who runs the show.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The Film Stage by Ethan Vestby
Another example of a tasteful but passionless festival film, Saim Sadiq’s feature debut Joyland errs on the side of arch family drama when its most interesting aspects remain almost in the periphery, promising a much better film.
Tartly funny and plungingly sad in equal measure, this is nuanced, humane queer filmmaking, more concerned with the textures and particulars of its own intimate story than with grander social statements — even if, as a tale of transgender desire in a Muslim country, its very premise makes it a boundary-breaker.
The Hollywood Reporter by Lovia Gyarkye
As Joyland heads toward its end, the film grows increasingly moving. Secrets and their attendant lies collapse under pressure. The weight of what’s left unsaid strangles interactions.
Joyland is a wonderful film about longing and desire with a melancholy undertone that you just don't expect.
The frame moves slowly, if at all, but it always brims with physical and emotional energy; in “Joyland,” there’s always something in the ether, whether embodied by dazzling displays of light as characters move across stages and club floors, or by breathtaking silences as they begin to figure each other out, and figure out themselves.
Users who liked this film also liked
All About Lily Chou-Chou
(リリイ・シュシュのすべて)
Two troubled teens seek refuge from the perils of everyday life in the dreamy music of fictional pop singer Lily Chou-Chou.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2001
- Director Shunji Iwai
- Cast Hayato Ichihara, Shugo Oshinari, Yu Aoi, Ayumi Ito, Takao Osawa, Miwako Ichikawa
- Genre Crime, Drama
- Available on Fandor Amazon Channel, AsianCrush, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV, Pluto TV, Freevee, Cineverse, Kanopy, Hoopla, Plex, Plex Channel
Castaway on the Moon
(김씨 표류기)
A debt-ridden man abandons his city life to live on an uninhabited river island, striking up a friendship with a reclusive young woman.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea • 2009
- Director Lee Hae-jun
- Cast Jung Jae-young, Jung Ryeo-won, Yang Mi-kyung, Lee Sang-hun, Jang So-yeon, Park Young-seo
- Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Available on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV
The Misfortunates
(De helaasheid der dingen)
A thirty-something novelist looks back on his formative years in the hapless, alcohol-ridden milieu of his youth in 1980s rural Belgium.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Belgium, Netherlands • 2009
- Director Felix van Groeningen
- Cast Kenneth Vanbaeden, Valentijn Dhaenens, Koen De Graeve, Wouter Hendrickx, Johan Heldenbergh, Bert Haelvoet
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
El sur
The daughter of a scientist with mystical powers attempts to discover the secrets he's been keeping from her
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Spain, France • 1983
- Director Víctor Erice
- Cast Omero Antonutti, Sonsoles Aranguren, Icíar Bollaín, Lola Cardona, Rafaela Aparicio, Aurore Clément
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, YouTube
125, rue Montmartre
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1959
- Director Gilles Grangier
- Cast Lino Ventura, Andréa Parisy, Robert Hirsch, Jean Desailly, Dora Doll, Lucien Raimbourg
- Genre Crime
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Murder Case of Hana & Alice
(花とアリス殺人事件)
Alice and Hana investigate the disappearance of their missing classmate.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2015
- Director Shunji Iwai
- Cast Yū Aoi, Anne Suzuki, Shôko Aida, Ranran Suzuki, Haru Kuroki
- Genre Drama, Animation, Comedy
- Available on Hoopla, Apple TV, Amazon Video, Pluto TV, Kanopy
Hide & Seek
(چھپن چھپائی)
Pakistan gay guerrilla film
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Denmark, Pakistan • 2013
- Director Saadat Munir, Saad Khan
- Cast Neeli Rana, Waseem, Kami, Jenny, Sid
- Genre Documentary, Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Hanagatami
(花筐)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2017
- Director Nobuhiko Obayashi
- Cast Shunsuke Kubozuka, Shinnosuke Mitsushima, Keishi Nagatsuka, Tokio Emoto, Honoka Yahagi, Hirona Yamazaki
- Genre Drama, Romance, War
- Available on Fandor, Fandor Amazon Channel, Criterion Channel, OVID, AsianCrush, Amazon Video
The Asadas!
(浅田家!)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2020
- Director Ryota Nakano
- Cast Kazunari Ninomiya, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Haru Kuroki, Masaki Suda, Jun Fubuki, Mitsuru Hirata
- Genre Drama, Family
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Girl Picture
(Tytöt tytöt tytöt)
Three teenage girls experience love and pleasure during the intense Finland winter.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Finland • 2022
- Director Alli Haapasalo
- Cast Linnea Leino, Aamu Milonoff, Eleonoora Kauhanen, Bruno Baer, Amos Brotherus, Oona Airola
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube
L'immensità
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy, France • 2022
- Director Emanuele Crialese
- Cast Penélope Cruz, Vincenzo Amato, Luana Giuliani, Aurora Quattrocchi, Elena Arvigo, Laura Nardi
- Genre Drama
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Plex, Plex Channel
Looop Lapeta
(लूप लपेटा)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- India • 2022
- Director Aakash Bhatia
- Cast Taapsee Pannu, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Shreya Dhanwanthary, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Rajendra Chawla, K.C. Shankar
- Genre Action, Comedy, Crime
- Available on Netflix, Netflix basic with Ads
Sick of Myself
(Syk pike)
When her boyfriend finds sudden fame, a woman devises a twisted plan to turn the attention to her.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Norway, Sweden • 2022
- Director Kristoffer Borgli
- Cast Kristine Kujath Thorp, Eirik Sæther, Anders Danielsen Lie, Fanny Vaager, Fredrik Stenberg Ditlev-Simonsen, Sarah Francesca Brænne
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on fuboTV, Paramount+ Amazon Channel, Paramount+ Roku Premium Channel, Showtime Apple TV Channel, Paramount+ with Showtime, Paramount Plus Apple TV Channel , Apple TV, Amazon Video
Rhinegold
(Rheingold)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Germany, Italy, Netherlands • 2022
- Director Fatih Akin
- Cast Emilio Sakraya, Kardo Razzazi, Mona Pirzad, Majid Bakhtiari, Julia Goldberg, Karim Günes
- Genre Drama, History, Music
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Until Tomorrow
(Ta farda)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Iran, France, Qatar • 2022
- Director Ali Asgari
- Cast Sadaf Asgari, Ghazal Shojaei, Babak Karimi, Amirreza Ranjbaran, Nahal Dashti, Mohammad Heidari
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
My Neighbor Adolf
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Israel, Colombia, Poland • 2022
- Director Leon Prudovsky
- Cast David Hayman, Udo Kier, Olivia Silhavy, Danharry Colorado, Jaime Correa, Jan Szugajew
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.