Daily Times

The internationally acclaimed, award-winning film Joyland has been banned by the government less than a week before it was set to release. The film had already been granted a censor certificate from the CNFC in August, but it appears that The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has changed its mind, citing “objectionable material” that does not conform to the “decency and morality” clause in the Motion Picture Ordinance of 1979.

The film made its debut at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, where it won the jury prize, going on to win the young cinema award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. Jamaat-e-Islami Senator Mushtaq Ahmed welcomed the state’s decision to ban the film, claiming it was unIslamic. Many speculate that the film has been subjected to a “paid smear campaign,” with thousands of people tweeting #banJoyland on Twitter.

Joyland is Saim Sadiq’s feature film; the director was hesitant to debut his work to Pakistani audiences due to its fierce depiction of trans characters. Joyland revolves around an illicit relationship between a trans starlet and a boy from a patriarchal, middle-class family who becomes enthralled with the world of erotic dance. The film is a bold exploration of diversity in a country that has systematically oppressed its trans community. Indeed, it is strange that an innocuous film about a trans character has received such firm opposition from the state when the public is routinely exposed to needless violence and misogyny on television.

Pakistani cinema has suffered at the hands of the decency and morality clause many times before; Sarmad Khoosat’s Zindagi Tamasha was banned after Tehreek-e-Laibak threatened to stage a countrywide protest against its screening in 2019. The director received a barrage of threats from hardline Islamists across the country who claimed that the film was “blasphemous.” For the film industry to thrive, creative expression must not be censored. The state’s unwillingness to screen experimental media that defies the mainstream has isolated Pakistani filmmakers from their global contemporaries, who are used to taking risks and having their work appreciated. Audiences should be allowed to decide what they want to consume; only a fascist state would keep its people from consuming material that violates its official narrative. *