The Queen of My Dreams
FAWZIA MIRZA | CANADA | 2023 | 97 MIN | ENGLISH + URDU EST
FAWZIA MIRZA | CANADA | 2023 | 97 MIN | ENGLISH + URDU EST
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Synopsis
This homage to Bollywood spectacle and intergenerational bonds is a time-hopping, candy-coloured crowd pleaser that induces huge smiles and big laughs while also tackling the resonant themes of enforced gender roles, passive racism, and the seismic shifts of growing up. Azra (a stunning Amrit Kaur) lives in cohabitating sexual bliss with her girlfriend in Toronto in the VHS-popping 90s when she receives news of her father’s death. One voltaic match cut later and she’s on a plane for the funeral in Pakistan with her brother (Ali A. Kazmi), where her mother (Ms. Marvel’s Nimra Bucha) nitpicks and her culture shuts her out of the mourning process. Then another and we’re in 1969 Karachi, swept up in the whirlwind romance of Azra’s rule-breaking mother (also played by Amrit Kaur, underscoring mother-daughter parallels) and dashing father (Hamza Haq) before their tough transition to 1989 Nova Scotia. Each temporal hop peeling back another layer of how Azra’s family dynamic came to be. The Queen of My Dreams is itself a moviegoer’s dream, chock-full of eye-popping visuals, high production value, and fantastic fashion. Revealing how salvation can come in unlikely ways from unlikely sources.
Trailer
Filmmaker Bio
Fawzia Mirza (she/they) is a White House Champion of Change in Asian storytelling and an alum of the Canadian Academy of Women Directors' Program. Her feature directorial debut The Queen of my Dreams, shot in Canada and Pakistan, world premiered at TIFF 2023, had its international premiere at the BFI London Film Festival and was nominated for the Director’s Guild of Canada’s Jean-Marc Vallée Discovery Award. She co-founded and runs Baby Daal Productions with her wife, producer Andria Wilson Mirza.
Producer
Jason Levangie, Marc Tetrault, Andria Wilson Mirza
Writer
Fawzia Mirza
Cinematographer
Matt Irwin
Cast
- Amrit Kaur
- Nimra Bucha
- Hamza Haq
PARTNERS
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