Queer Cinema’s Practicing Muslims and Practicing Homosexuals

Abstract

Bilal Qureshi returns to the pages of Film Quarterly to examine the unexpected success on the festival circuit and beyond of Joyland (Saim Sadiq, 2022), from Pakistan, and Le bleu du caftan (The Blue Caftan, Maryam Touzani, 2022), from Morocco. Both films are singular, unusual stories of success from underrepresented film cultures, prompting Qureshi to inquire whether they represent a queer breakthrough for Pakistani or Moroccan filmmaking. Elegant, lush, and romantic, each an impeccably made window into middle-class Pakistani and Moroccan family life and unspoken queer desire, Joyland and The Blue Caftan open up exciting conversations about the future of queer cinema and, perhaps even more importantly, about Muslim cinema.