The Queen of My Dreams

Synopsis

It’s 1999. 22-year-old queer Pakistani grad student Azra lives in Toronto with her girlfriend Sharon. When her father suddenly dies on a trip to visit family in Pakistan, Azra immediately flies to Karachi, where her mother Mariam expects her to behave like a daughter in mourning should. With an already strained relationship to her mother, Azra finds herself on a Bollywood-inspired journey through memories, both real and imagined; from her mother’s youth in Karachi to her own coming- of-age in Canada. A journey showing that mother and daughter might not be so different after all.

Inspired by personal experiences and family stories, infused with humor, romance, music, and 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.

Amrit Kaur impresses not only as Azra, but also as her own mother Mariam in her youth, for which she received a Canadian Screen Award for best lead role in June.

Writer-director Fawzia Mirza visited Oslo/Fusion in 2017 with the feature film Signature Move, which she also wrote and starred in. In her debut as a feature film director, she impresses with a wonderful story and family drama that will charm and move in equal measures.