LALI

Press Screening: tba
World Premiere: tba
Screenings: tba

116 min. / Pakistan 2026 / feature

Director Sarmad Sultan Khoosat is available for interviews.

LALI by writer-director Sarmad Sultan Khoosat is world premiering at the Berlin International Film Festival 2026 in the Panorama section. LALI is the first all Pakistani production screening at Berlinale and the fourth feature film by the acclaimed director and producer whose professional track record includes Zindagi Tamasha (Oscars® entry, 2019) and Joyland (Jury Prize Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2022) as producer. LALI is a darkly comic tale of a couple whose lives spiral through desire, superstition, and fear, as reality itself begins to slip.

LALI is a playful yet incisive exploration of marriage, repression, and unresolved trauma. Drawing on the unsettling notion of a man feigning possession to control his wife, the film examines the fear, shame, and violence that lie beneath intimate relationships. With a keen eye for human complexity, it seeks to confront and release the suppressed forces that continue to suffocate many unions.

SYNOPSIS
In the dappled shade of the jamun tree and the spice-laden hush of her kitchen, Zeba moves like a whisper. Newly wed to Sajawal, a man child haunted by his own reflection, she seeks refuge in two women: Sohni Ammi, her feisty mother-in-law whose sharp tongue hides a big heart, and Bholi, the quiet neighbour whose gaze holds a strange wisdom. Zeba’s past looms large. Three suitors lost before they could wed her, their deaths hang like a curse. Love stirs, but Sajawal’s paranoia festers. Bodies become battlegrounds, desire turns to anarchy.

LALI is a darkly comic fever dream set in Sahiwal’s shanty towns, where ghosts walk with the living and prophecies press heavy.

Sarmad Sultan Khoosat is a filmmaker shaping contemporary South Asian storytelling. His films Zindagi Tamasha (2019) and Joyland (2022) were Pakistan’s official Oscar® submissions, with Joyland winning the Jury Prize at Cannes. Kamli (2022) premiered at IFFR, further establishing his distinct cinematic voice. Working across film, television, and theatre, Sarmad is known for his precise and uncompromising engagement with human emotion, identity, and social structures. He is a recipient of Pakistan’s Pride of Performance and remains a significant voice within global independent cinema.

LALI features Mamya Shajaffar, Channan Hanif, Rasti Farooq, Farazeh Syed, and Mehr Bano.
Director of Photography: Khizer Idrees (Manto, Zindagi Tamasha)
Editor: Saim Sadiq (Joyland, Kamli)
Production Design: Kanwal Khoosat (Joyland, Wakhri, Kamli)
Music: Abdullah Siddiqui (Joyland, Wakhri)

LALI is produced by Khoosat Films in collaboration with Enso Films.

Production Company:
Khoosat Films Private Limited
43-A, Block D
New Muslim Town
Lahore, Pakistan
https://khoosatfilms.com

World Sales:
tba

©/CREDITS:

Stills: © Khoosat Films