(AFP) The Pakistani film featuring an obscene portrait of a transgender dancer from a Muslim country won the Cannes Film Festival’s Queer Palm award for best LGBT, queer or feminist film on Friday, chair of the AFP jury.
A sexual revolution story directed by Saim Sadiq, The Land of Joy tells the story of the youngest son in a patriarchal family, whose wife is expected to give birth to a son.
Instead, he attended an erotic dance theater and fell in love with a transgender woman who was the director of the group.
It was the first Pakistani entry in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Jury Prize on Friday in Un Certain Regard, a section dedicated to young, innovative film talent.
“This is a very powerful film that represents everything we represent,” French director Catherine Corsini, head of the Queer Palm jury, told AFP.
“Floated by the wind”
Corsini won the award last year for The Rupture, which chronicles the relationship of a lesbian couple against the backdrop of the yellow vest movement in France.
“The echo of Joyland resonates all over the world,” said Corsini. “They have strong characters that are both complex and real. Nothing bent. This movie shocked us.”
In the past, Queer Palm won famous directors and drew the best talent to the jury, but did not officially participate in the world’s largest film festival.
Film awards for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and gay films have been an integral part of other major film events since 1987, including Berlin, which has hosted the “Teddy Award” and forms this part of its official programme.
The situation is different in Cannes, where the festival authorities did not allow Queer Palm, which has existed for ten years, to open a store in its main building, the Palais du Festival.
“I’m sorry that the festival is still cold at Queer Palm,” Corsini said.
Founded in 2010 by critic Frank Finance-Madureira, former award winners include Todd Haynes for Carol and Xavier Dolan for Lawrence Anyway.
Joyland beat out several other strong entries, including Belgian director Lucas Don’s Intimacy and Kirill Serebrennikov’s Tchaikovsky’s Wife, which are Cannes’ top Palme d’Or contenders to be announced on Saturday.
Land of Joy was highly appreciated and appreciated by the audience at Cannes, and the audience received a standing ovation at its premiere.
“Very schizophrenic”
Part of the surprise was the discovery by many in Cannes that Pakistan was one of the first countries to provide legal protection against discrimination against transgender people.
In 2009, Pakistan legally recognized the third gender, and in 2018 it issued its first transgender passport.
“Pakistan is very schizophrenic, almost bipolar,” director Saim Sadiq told AFP.
“Of course, you get prejudice and some violence against a particular community on the one hand, but you also get this very progressive law that basically allows everyone to define their gender and also recognizes a third gender,” he said.
The Queer Palm jury chose Chinese director Shuli Huang’s movie named “You Look at Me” in the Short Film category.
Set in the director’s hometown, the diary depicts a traditional society where parents care more about their gay children’s well-being than their reputation.
Source: Breitbart
