Sana Jafri on Pakistan’s first Cannes triumph
View(s):A “global breakthrough of immeasurable proportions” said The Hindu, not wasting the opportunity to celebrate the first award at Cannes for a film from Pakistan. Saim Sadiq’s debut feature Joyland had just picked up the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the 75th Cannes festival, making it also the first such prize winner from the subcontinent. Sana Jafri – performer, director and producer based in Lahore – pitched in as a co-producer, first assistant director, and casting director in her typical hands-on style. She took part in the Rotterdam Lab producer training programme at IFFR 2022 and checked in with us as she returned to Pakistan after a jubilant Cannes experience.
“I Googled what an assistant director was supposed to do.”
“It was the most fun I’ve ever had and the most anxious I’ve ever been”, she said of the experience working on her first feature. Her relationship with director Saim Sadiq went back to his earlier short film, The Caretaker (2017). “I was actually going to audition for a character because I used to do theatre. He’s like, yeah, you’re selected. But could you help me out with this, and this, this…” One thing led to another, spurred on by her natural enthusiasm, and he asked if she would be his assistant director. “I said of course! I went back home, and I Googled what an assistant director was supposed to do. I had no idea but whatever he was creating, I was so interested in it.”
Darling came next, Sadiq’s thesis film for his degree at New York’s Columbia university. “He contacted me, he sent me the script, and told me ‘you’re gonna cast.’” Sadiq was developing the same themes as he would work with in Joyland, exploring societal roles through the life of a trans character. Jafri had plenty of experience here, having worked closely with the Lahore trans community during her time working in theatre. Through an event run by an NGO, she discovered the actress who would star in both the short and the feature.
“This girl needs to be seen by the world.”
“There were only 40 people there, all scattered around the room, but the fire was inside her. I thought ‘this girl needs to be seen by the world.’” Darling was set in a theatre central to Lahore’s erotic dance subculture, and casts trans actress Alina Khan as herself in the leading role, as she vies for a place in the spotlight. “There was a lot of anxiety,” said Jafri, who had been developing her directing experience on a number of projects but none on this scale. “I was dealing with like a crowd of 400 men who were looking at an erotic dance for the first time in their lives, you know, in Pakistan!” The short went on to pick up the Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film at Venice, received special jury mention at SXSW and was an official selection at TIFF.
With a budding creative relationship between herself and Sadiq, Jafri was quite happy continuing to work as assistant director. “I didn’t want to produce, to be this business person who controlled the money and finances. I’m a creative person!” she said in jest, admitting the irony in her preconception about the role. Nevertheless, she ended up producing a few shorts herself, and when the time came to start on Joyland, Sadiq asked for her help. “Him and the main producer were in New York, so we needed someone in Pakistan, who could meet the crew, do all the managerial work. Because I had been working, I knew who was the best.”
Courtesy IFFR
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