Anaïs Nin, one of the world’s most prolific diarists, once ruminated on the elusive nature of joy in 1939. “Will I ever reach joy?” she asks in Mirages: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin. “It hides behind the turning merry-go-round of the travelling circus. As soon as I approach it, it is no longer joy. Joy is a foam, an illumination.”
In the Pakistani feature film Joyland, the country’s official entry for best international feature film at the Oscars next year, the “merry-go-round of the travelling circus” always offers that moment of deliverance. For sisters-in-law, Nucchi and Mumtaz, the Joyland amusement park (from where the film derives its name) with its wild, fairground rides is an escape from the burden of duties and expectations in a patriarchal household. Despite the Oscar buzz and the global applause, Joyland is banned in parts of Pakistan for promoting a “gay agenda”, as alleged by political parties and religious hardliners there. But the film is bravely marching on to find more and more audiences.
This story is from the December 04, 2022 edition of THE WEEK India.
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This story is from the December 04, 2022 edition of THE WEEK India.
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