Is Joyland facing curbs for humanising transpersons?

In the month of May this year, Joyland directed by Saim Sadiq made history when it became the first Pakistani feature film to win a feminist-themed award at the prestigious the Cannes Film Festival. Since the project hadn't been shown in Pakistan, it generated a great deal of curiosity among cinephiles about its subject matter.

Once the film garnered international recognition, it was almost certain that Pakistan's Oscars Selection Committee would pick it as the formal entry for Oscars 2023, which it did. The next step was its release in Pakistani cinemas. Two months later, on Aug 17, the Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC) issued it the necessary censor certificate, and from Nov 18 the film was (supposed) to be screened in Pakistani cinemas.

But on Nov 11 (Friday), the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, through a notification, cancelled its license. Reason? Point two of the notification reads: 'Written complaints were received that the film contains highly objectionable material which do 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'.

The...