Joyland

Newly hired background dancer with failing marriage falls in love with transsexual star in Oscar-shortlisted, double Cannes-winning drama.

In one of the year’s most poetic film images, Haider drives home on the moped in the Lahore night with a three-meter cardboard doll on the handlebars. The doll represents Biba, the big star at the erotic nightclub where Haider got a job as a background dancer. Haider is married in an arranged marriage, but both he and wife Mumtaz are bothered by the gender-related demands that exist in the family. Saim Sadiq’s film has been shortlisted for an Oscar and awoke an enormous response worldwide. At the premiere in Cannes, the film was awarded both the Queer Palm and the jury prize in the Un Certain Regard section. In Pakistan, on the other hand, the film was first banned outright, but after a social media campaign, the censorship was released in most regions.

• Jonas Holmberg