Joyland

In the heart of the metropolitan yet conservative city of Lahore lives the Rana family, a lower middle class joint family comprising of the old patriarch, the elder son and pregnant wife with three daughters, and the youngest son Haider and his wife Mumtaz.

As the Rana’s eagerly anticipate the birth of a baby boy to continue their family line, Haider secretly takes up a job as a background dancer at an erotic theatre where he is drawn to an ambitious trans starlet, Biba. Slowly yet suddenly, Haider and Biba are engulfed in a secret summer romance which surreptitiously takes over his home, unraveling the dichotomy between desire and morality for the entire Rana family.

Saim Sadiq is a Pakistani filmmaker whose film JOYLAND is the first Pakistani feature to premiere at the 75th Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard. His short film DARLING was the first Pakistani film to premiere at the 76th Venice Film Festival, where it won the Orrizonti Prize for Best Short Film. DARLING was also an official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival 2019, won a Special Jury Mention award at South by Southwest 2020 and was acquired for distribution by Focus Features.

His previous short film NICE TALKING TO YOU was an official selection at South by Southwest 2019, Palm Springs International Shortsfest 2019, made the BAFTA Shortlist for Best Student Film and won Vimeo’s Best Director award at Columbia University Film Festival 2018. It also won the Kodak Student Scholarship Gold Award.

Sadiq recently wrote the original pilot “It Never Rains in Cairo” for MakeReady with Brad Weston and Scott Silver executive producing. Currently, he is writing the film adaptation of New York Times bestseller "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet’’; Oscar-nominated Bing Liu is attached to direct.

Sadiq received his bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the Lahore University of Managemen Sciences and his MFA in film directing from Columbia University.