The Queen of My Dreams

by Mike McGranaghan

Life can sometimes feel like a movie. Fawzia Mirza’s debut feature The Queen of My Dreams is told from the perspective of a young Pakistani woman obsessed with her mother’s favorite romantic film. The story deals with the common theme of a liberal twentysomething clashing with a traditional, conservative parent while simultaneously examining the role motion pictures play in our lives.

Azra (Amrit Kaur) lives in Toronto with her girlfriend, an arrangement not entirely accepted by her mother Mariam (Nimra Bucha). When her beloved father Hassan (Hamza Haq) passes away, she returns to Pakistan for the funeral and immediately begins bumping heads with Mariam. Inspired by a viewing of a movie her mom showed her as a child, she starts to reflect on Mariam’s youth in 1969, particularly how she met Hassan and, like Azra, upset her own mother by breaking conventions. In doing so, she stumbles across parallels that help her redefine her perception of their relationship.

The Queen of My Dreams has a heavy Bollywood influence. Early on, Azra explains to her confused girlfriend that it’s not uncommon for the same actor to play multiple roles onscreen. Mirza then has Kaur also play Mariam in the flashback scenes, whereas Faq plays both the younger and older versions of Hassan. Scenes involving romance are shot like a Bollywood classic, with dances of seduction set to dreamy music. There’s additionally a heavy use of color, sometimes symbolically, as is de rigueur in Bollywood fare.

Those aspects are fun, as is Amrit Kaur’s performance. The actress absolutely sparkles onscreen, being cute and funny one minute, then mining heavy emotional depth the next. An ability to play two roles allows her to draw lines between mother and daughter that add richness to the plot. That becomes important as Azra realizes her mom was once as non-conforming to tradition as she is now. Connections between them really pop.

Mirza gives the film a bouncy pace, and her screenplay is filled with smart dialogue and shrewd romantic observations. Jumping back and forth in time is intermittently confusing, but it’s okay because the story ends up in a meaningful, touching place. The Queen of My Dreams works as both a parent/child dramady and as a dual romance (one straight, one queer). It’s one of those cool little gems that’s worth looking for.

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