What’s in a name? For Pakistani filmmaker Saim Sadiq, there’s so much meaning wrapped up in the title of his extraordinary debut feature, “Joyland.”

In Lahore, the sprawling city where the story unfolds, there is a real-life amusement park by the same name that serves as a sweet, glittering setting for a rare night out for two housewives in the film’s outstanding ensemble. Mumtaz (Rasti Farooq) and Nucchi (Sarwat Gilani) are sisters-in-law who live under the same roof, caring for three generations of their husbands’ family.

By the time Mumtaz visits Joyland, she’s a woman whose discontent is clear. After years of being the breadwinner in her marriage, she recently has given up the job she loved, working as a makeup artist on a team of boisterous women. Her husband, Haider (Ali Junejo), has finally found a paying job — at the local erotic dance theater. He tells his family he’s working as a theater manager, when actually he’s a backup dancer to Biba (Alina Khan), a magnetic trans woman who knows her star power.

While Haider embarks on his sexy adventure (which is, at times, surprisingly comedic), Mumtaz is stuck in domestic claustrophobia.

At night, we see her toss and turn in a crowded bed — often, she and Haider must share their tight sleeping quarters with one of Nucchi’s young children, making a fulfilling sex life for Mumtaz impossible. By day, she shoulders the weight of countless household burdens, like schlepping an electric fan on the home’s stairs to get relief from the city’s oppressive heat.

Still, in her marriage, she is the more capable partner, illustrated with brutal precision in a scene where she slaughters a goat when a faltering Haider can’t get the job done.

This makes the Joyland outing all the more sublime. It’s exhilarating to see Mumtaz and Nucchi free of their wifely obligations, the wind whipping their hair on a thrill ride. I loved witnessing these women get joyful relief — the moment adds complexity to their characters, who are as lovingly depicted as Haider, his father and other men in the film are.

导演Sadiq削肉做了出色的工作out the many characters in his ensemble. A less sensitive filmmaker might mishandle a trans character like Biba, whose romance in the storyline was so controversial in Pakistan that the film was banned in Lahore and Punjab Province. But actress Alina Khan, who is trans, balances Biba’s larger-than-life stage persona with moments of quiet vulnerability and stinging anger.

In this film, everyone is allowed to explore their desire, from Biba to Haider’s elderly father (Salmaan Peerzada) to quiet Mumtaz.

“Joyland” is a revolutionary film. In 2022, it made history as the first Pakistani feature ever to screen at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won both the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize and the Queer Palm. But a caution to anyone who might reduce this nuanced story to simply “a queer Muslim film.”

It’s revolutionary due to Sadiq’s care and close attention to detail with all of his characters. It’s a love letter to a place and people he knows intimately, and I hope to see much more of his work soon.

Hannah Bae is a freelance writer.