Superheroes, jazz, queer art

Freed from the shadow of 9/11, Pakistan's artists are earning international acclaim by building on and confronting their country’s rich heritage

- Fatima Bhutto

In August, Pakistan's three censor boards cleared Saim Sadiq's award-winning film Joyland for release. Shot in Lahore, it is about a young married man from a conservative family who finds work at a dance theatre and falls in love with a trans woman struggling to land her moment on stage.

It was the first Pakistani film to screen at Cannes and it won the Un Certain Regard prize, receiving a standing ovation nearly 10 minutes long.

Even though the film was then subject to various bans in Pakistan, after being accused of pushing an LGBTQ+ agenda and misrepresenting Pakistani culture, it finally appeared in Pakistani cinemas in November, with Malala Yousafzai signing on as executive producer.

Whatever happens at home (the whiplash never seemed to end, as the Punjab censor board reversed course once more and re-banned the film), the film's next journey will be to the Academy Awards, as Pakistan's submission for best foreign film.

This drama is nothing new. Pakistanis have always understood their heritage to be culturally rich and transgressive: from the romance of the Urdu language, spoken by poets and in royal courts, to qawwali singers as diverse as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Abida Parveen, to television dramas and literature.

Today, Pakistani artists are garnering international attention as they continue this legacy of confronting themselves and their society, interrogating religion, sexuality and class hierarchies.