The Queen of My Dreams – A Reel Alternatives Film Screening

Against the backdrop of a shared obsession with Bollywood fantasy, Mariam, a Pakistani Muslim woman, and her Canadian-born daughter Azra come of age in two different eras, in two very different ways but with a common connection.

Azra is a Pakistani woman living in Toronto whose openly gay relationship and pursuit of an acting career is worlds apart from her conservative Muslim parents. When her father suddenly dies on a trip home to Pakistan, Azra finds herself on a Bollywood-inspired journey through memories,both real and imagined, from her mother’s youth in Karachi to her own journey to adulthood in rural Canada.

While her stern mother, Mariam, demands that Azra play the role of the perfect grieving daughter, we see the connections uniting mother and daughter through flashbacks to Mariam’s own life in Karachi 30 years before, starting with their shared love of the Bollywood star Sharmila Tagore.

Writer/Director Fawzia Mirza’s energetic first feature explores the chasm between individual desires and cultural expectation, showcasing a great dual performance from Amrit Kaur as both Azra and the younger Mariam. As the older Mariam, veteran actor Nimra Bucha, whom audiences may recognize from Ms. Marvel, harmonizes with Kaur we see hints of the woman Mariam used to be within the person she’s become. Cinematographer Matt Irwin (CBC’s Sort Of) gives the 1969 sequences the vivid primary colours and lighting of the era’s Bollywood movies while keeping the 1999 material more subdued and naturalistic. Editor Simone Smith (a Canadian Screen Award winner for I Like Movies) shuffles us confidently between the two time frames. Azra might feel lost, but this movie knows exactly where it’s going.

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