One of his advisers stated that, days after the measure was imposed, the prime minister of Pakistan has ordered a review of the ban on the country’s Oscar entry, Joyland.
The film, which tells the love story of a married man and a transgender woman, is Pakistan’s entry for the Academy Awards the following year and won a prize at the Cannes Film Festival this year.
However, the film sparked controversy in Pakistan, a Muslim-majority country, and state censors reversed a previous release permit by prohibiting its showings in theaters last week.
An adviser to Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Salman Sufi, tweeted late on Monday that a high-level committee is being formed to evaluate Joyland and look into the ban.
Despite some progress with a law that protects their rights and a landmark Supreme Court ruling designating them as a third gender, many people in Pakistan still view transgender people as outsiders.
Saim Sadiq, the film’s director, described the restriction as “unconstitutional and illegal.”On Friday, Joyland was supposed to be released in Pakistan.
