Sarmad Khoosat’s Lali picked up another major festival credit, being selected for the 70th BFI London Film Festival, the United Kingdom’s largest film event, running from October 7 to 18.
Khoosat shared the news on Instagram after the festival unveiled the line-up, posting images from the programme announcement. “To be in this line-up, and to get to bring all the madness, music, colour, love and the many other crazy things of Lali to a global audience at the London Film Festival. Well, that feels rather lovely,” the director wrote, adding that the film’s placement on the opening day made the selection “feel a little more special.”
According to the official festival programme, Lali will screen at the Institute of Contemporary Arts on the opening day. The festival will present 251 features, shorts, series and immersive works from 88 countries this year, with Khoosat’s work screening as part of the festival’s “Laugh” strand.
The film, co-written by Khoosat and Sundus Hashmi, had its world premiere at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival in February this year, becoming the first fully Pakistani-produced feature film to screen at the Berlinale. It was produced as a collaboration between Khoosat Films and Dubai-based Enso Studios.
The film follows Zeba, played by Mamya Shajaffar, a young woman branded a “cursed bride” after three of her suitors die under mysterious circumstances. She is pushed into an arranged marriage with Sajawal, a man carrying his own troubled past and a facial birthmark, a setup the film plays as a pitch-black comedy with supernatural undertones.
The ensemble cast also includes Channan Hanif, Joyland‘s Rasti Farooq and Churails star Meher Bano.
The London selection builds on a run of international recognition for Lali. It previously earned an honourable mention from the feature jury at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles in April, where it was praised for its genre fluidity and visual richness.
Khoosat’s 2019 film Zindagi Tamasha was also selected as Pakistan’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, while Joyland, which he produced in 2022, won the Jury Prize at Cannes that year and went on to become Pakistan’s Oscar entry for the 95th Academy Awards.
