The Queen of My Dreams
The Queen of My Dreams
Category: Queer Screen Goes to Cannes
Directed by: Fawzia Mirza
Produced by: Andria Wilson Mirza + Fawzia Mirza for Baby Daal Productions; Jason Levangie and Marc Tetreault for Shut Up & Colour Pictures, Executive Producer Damon D'Oliveira
Country of production: Canada, Pakistan
Original title: The Queen of My Dreams
Language: English, Urdu
Runtime: 95'
Completed in: 2023
It’s 1999. In TORONTO, 22-year-old Pakistani, Muslim AZRA MALIK shows her girlfriend her favourite Bollywood film – ARADHANA, the 1969 hit starring Sharmila Tagore. Meanwhile, across the country in SYDNEY, NOVA SCOTIA, Azra’s mother, MARIAM (52), conservative, watches a similarly-labelled VHS (except Mariam’s recorded over her Bollywood movie with religious teachings) as she and her husband HASSAN pack for a trip back home to Pakistan. An awkward phone call between mother-daughter makes it evident that their relationship is strained. Two nights later, Azra gets another call from her mother: Hassan’s had a heart attack on the trip and died. This film takes place over the next 48 hours, as Azra flies to Pakistan and buries her father. Azra’s journey back to Pakistan incites memories and flashbacks to her – and her mother’s – past, to two OTHER life-altering time periods.