The Queen of My Dreams is part musical, part family drama and part romance, all wrapped up in a funny, colorful coming-of-age package. Writer and director Fawzia Mirza crafts an impressive feature directorial debut, telling the story of a young, queer Pakistani Muslim woman and her intelligent, headstrong mother at different stages of their lives. First, we meet Azra (Amrit Kaur) living with her girlfriend in Canada, watching one of her mother’s favorite films. Then, suddenly, her father dies and she’s flying to Pakistan for his funeral. As the emotional strain between Azra and her mother Mariam (Nimra Bucha) worsens, the film jumps backwards in time to show her young mother (played by Kaur) and father Hassan (Hamza Haq) falling in love. When they become engaged, Mariam clashes with her mother as well, and the parallels between mother and daughter through generations becomes strikingly clear. Mirza then jumps to Azra’s childhood in Canada, revealing a closer relationship with her mother slowly fractured by the realization that Azra likes girls.
The Queen of My Dreams is a tough balancing act that Mirza navigates with skill, humor and a maturity that allows her to fully embrace sentiment. It’s a movie with a big heart, bursting with energy and empathy in equal measure. As Ami points out, we are “able to see the struggles Azra faced growing up as a diaspora child without attacking Islam.” Kaur gives a confident dual performance as two strong women who only want the best for their loved ones but refuse to shrink themselves to make it happen. Anainah says The Queen of My Dreams, “truly speaks to so many experiences and feels so lovingly made as an homage to Bollywood, mothers, immigrants and queer daughters.” JS
