DNA Explainer: Why Pakistan's Oscar entry Joyland has been banned in its own country?

The government of Pakistan has decided to block the release of its highly critically-acclaimed movie Joyland, which is said to contain “highly objectionable material”. What is interesting is that Joyland is the Oscar entry for Pakistan, expected to be reviewed at the Academy Awards.

The movie is being praised globally because of its liberating content and representation of the LGBTQ community. Joyland is also the first ever Pakistani movie to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival, but what is ironic is that it can no longer be screened in its own country.

What is the controversy surrounding Joyland?

Joyland is a critically acclaimed movie that was made by over 200 Pakistani crew members over the course of six years. The film is a fictional story about a middle-class family in Lahore, where the family patriarch sets rigourous rules for his two sons and daughters-in-law.

The family head has strong beliefs that his sons must provide him with grandchildren after marriage, a wish that is challenged when his younger son Haider falls in love with a transgender dancer. The movie is deemed as the strongest creative representation of the LGBTQ community from Pakistan.

After screening at several international events and high critical acclaim, Joyland was decided as the official entry of Pakistan for the category of Best International Feature Film for Oscars 2023. However, the Pakistani government decided to block the screening of the film in the country.

There was severe backlash on the movie from religious groups, and people were raising questions about the “moral standards and social values” of the film. Several political leaders and groups also accused the movie of “promoting homosexuality.”

Blocking the movie, Pakistan’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry said, “Written complaints were received that the film contains highly objectionable material which does not conform with the social values and moral standards of our society and is clearly repugnant to the norms of ‘decency and morality as laid down in Section 9 of the Motion Picture Ordinance, 1979.”

After major backlash against the ban by the LGBTQ community, the authorities in Pakistan have decided to review the screening of the movie in the country, likely to make some cuts.

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