The Queen Of My Dreams is a semi-autobiographical film by writer/director Fawzia Mirza
about her experiences as a queer Canadian woman of south Asian heritage.
1999, Azra (Amrit Kaur) travels from Toronto to Karachi after her father Hassan's (Hamza
Haq) sudden death, forcing her to confront her complicated relationship with her mother
Mariam (Nimra Bucha).
The film flashes back to 1960s Karachi, portraying a booming, groovy period where the
young Mariam (also played by Kaur) rebelliously pursues her own path in life. When a
chance meeting with Hassan occurred, it was love at first sight.
In the modern-day storyline, Azra must navigate mourning her idealised late father while
trying to understand her equally complex living mother. The film explores the dangers of
putting loved ones on pedestals rather than seeing their full humanity. It's a story about
intergenerational divides, culture clashes, and the messy reality of mother-daughter
relationships.
While paying homage to the classic Bollywood film and song "Meri Sapno Ki Rani" (literally
The Queen of My Dreams), the movie's heart lies in Mirza's very personal look at her own
family dynamics and quest for self-discovery. It's an insightful, comedic, and moving
examination of South Asian identity.
Fawzia Mirza says, “The Queen Of My Dreams is a dramedy spanning 30 years in the life of
a Pakistani-Canadian family. It’s an exploration of the intergenerational connections between
mothers and daughters, East and West, home and away, infused with humor, romance,
music and Bollywood fantasy. Inspired by personal experiences, some of my mother’s
stories, intertwined with Pakistani history and collective memory. The film shows the
expansive journey of women, seeking to define and decide their own paths, while
simultaneously learning – and remembering – how to love. And it explores the question I find
myself asking in all my work, “How do we become who we are?”
To answer that question, I turned to my conservative mother, a woman who seems so
different from me, and yet, we are so similar. She told me some stories of her past, which
made her sound like a movie star, like the iconic actress Sharmila Tagore. But the past still
felt like a mystery. I wanted to know more. I found myself nostalgic for her youth in 1960s
Pakistan, ‘The Golden Era’ of the country. That was a place I’d never been, but I found
myself yearning to visit. It didn’t sound anything like the Pakistan I knew. And I just wanted to
understand my mother better. It’s why the 60s was such an important era in this film. Who I
am is impacted by who my mother is, but also who she was. And who her mother was – our
intergenerational connection. Inspired by this, and the South Asian cinematic device of
“doubling,” I made the creative choice to cast the same actor who plays Azra at 22 to play
her mother at the same age in 1969.
Music evokes memory and nostalgia and the music throughout the film is intended to do just
that. In fact, the film’s title is inspired by the 1969 Sharmila Tagore hit film, “Aradhana” and
one of its classic songs, Mere Sapnon Ki Rani (The Queen of My Dreams). It’s a song about
a man finding the love of his life, the queen of his dreams. I grew up in a heteronormative
patriarchal society, so I always fantasized some man would sing this to me. When I came out
as queer, I thought the song no longer applied, or rather, maybe a woman would sing it to
me. But I realized I am the queen of my own dreams. And in Azra’s journey in the film, she
realizes she has the agency to step out of the generational mistakes made by her mother
and her mother before her. Azra is the queen of her own dreams.
This film is my way of traveling to the past, to imagine a world my mother might have lived in.
A world that blends genres — rich, technicolor, heightened scenes inspired by Mere Sapnon
Ki Rani amidst the realities of grief and loss. This film folds those ideas into the storytelling
through flashback, comedy, fantasy sequences, qawaali-inspired music set in the places that
I’ve romanticized through memory: 1969 Karachi, Pakistan and 1989, Sydney, Nova Scotia,
Canada.
Much like our lives, making this film has been a journey. It began in 2012 as a short film (also
titled) The Queen Of My Dreams and then a play Me, My Mom and Sharmila in 2014, after
which I worked on the screenplay for seven years, in various iterations and collaborations,
before entering pre-production, Summer 2022.”
The Queen Of My Dreams explores not putting loved ones on pedestals and the reality of
navigating mother-daughter relationships. It examines intergenerational divides, culture
clashes and self-realisation. The film's heart lies in writer/director Fawzia Mirza’s personal
look at her family dynamics and her journey as a queer Canadian woman. It’s an insightful
and humorous examination of South Asian identity.
Watch The Queen Of My Dreams distributed by Peccadillo Pictures set to release in the
UK cinemas on 13th September.
