To a niche, dedicated audience, Fawzia Mirza is a maestro, drawing a crowd to pack a theater at the film festival where I first saw her 2023 movie. The Queen of My Dreams is a brilliantly stylistic, intergenerational dramedy and romance. Amrit Kaur flawlessly plays both mother Mariam and daughter Azra in different eras, each coming of age as Muslim women. From the opening moment, this story has its focus while filling up the screen with so many important visual details. The Queen of My Dreams depicts complicated love amid familial conflicts and an adoration of classic Bollywood cinema.
The Queen Of My Dreams Depicts Nuanced Conflict Among Family

Azra & Mariam Are Both Fiercely Independent Women & Rich Characters

Quirky and feisty Gen X-er Azra is getting her MFA and living with her “roommate” when she is struck by a family tragedy. In tandem with this storyline, flashbacks show us Azra’s mother as a young woman in Pakistan, falling madly in love and eager to leave the country, despite her mother’s desire to keep her close. With upbeat pacing, great transitions between timelines leading up to where they meet, a clear thematic resonance between the two, and occasional sidetracks into Bollywood-themed daydreams, The Queen of My Dreams knows its structure and executes it flawlessly.

Amrit Kaur hits you with the passion of a young woman in both eras, not just in love — in her absolute conviction of who she wants to be.

There are a lot of parts of it that are joyful, rooted in the intoxicating whirlwind of being young. Amrit Kaur hits you with the passion of a young woman in both eras, not just in love but in her absolute conviction of who she wants to be. There is still an undercurrent of insecurity and anger in both Azra and Mariam, but overall, they are relatable as young women who can’t be stopped. The flip side of the story is a realistic sadness, as the main characters lose a loved one, and don’t really get closer to other issues.
The Queen of My Dreams really shines in its countless small, perfectly written moments that show the many tensions in how the characters both love and resent their family members and varying aspects of their culture. We’re not really given reason to believe that Mariam (played as an older woman by Nimra Bucha) is ever going to accept her daughter’s queer identity, and maybe Azra will someday have to reckon with that. But this story is about Azra reconciling the good and bad parts of her childhood, while she is seemingly living her best life as a queer woman elsewhere.

This story is about Azra reconciling the good and bad parts of her childhood, while she is seemingly living her best life as a queer woman elsewhere.

One could critique this movie on the basis that Mariam isn’t really redeemed for being outright cruel to Azra, but neither Bucha nor the story fails to show her humanity and sorrow, or how she clings to what she knows in times of uncertainty and questioning all the decisions she has made. The Queen of My Dreams effectively brings things full circle in how Mariam’s relationship with her mother is projected onto her relationship with Azra, how there is a cycle of the same mistakes being made, and yet, how they could still all heal each other.
The Queen Of My Dreams Masterfully Engages With Bollywood Cinema

The Costumes To The Casting Show The Love For Bollywood Movies

Courtesy of Willa/Product Of Culture

Azra cracks a joke early on about an actor playing multiple roles in her favorite Bollywood movie and the not-so-subtle symbolism of it. The movie we watch doesn’t really mimic the style of Bollywood, only in a few sparse scenes which are done mostly ironically. Yet those daydreams inject The Queen of My Dreams with the sense of how a person can connect to a work of art, no matter their time or sexuality. In the characters’ reality, the movie plays with elements of exaggerated comedy and Mariam even wears Sharmila Tagore’s saree for her wedding.

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The Queen of My Dreams is a complex, realistic tapestry of both frustration and admiration, both with family and culture, which doesn’t feel like it’s obligated to resolve every lingering plot thread, because that’s not how life works. What makes it all the more impressive is how the influences of old Bollywood are woven into this picture. Azra and Mariam’s worlds are as bright as their dreams, and the connection they will never lose is their love for a particular Bollywood movie.

The Queen of My Dreams

8/10

Release Date

September 8, 2023

Runtime

96 minutes

Director

Fawzia Mirza

Producers

Damon D’Oliveira, Jason Levangie, Marc Tetreault, Kamil Chima, Carol Ann Noronha, Josh Peters, Robina Riccitiello

Amrit Kaur

Azra / Young Mariam

Pros & Cons

Amrit Kaur is incredible in the dual lead role, while Nimra Bucha portrays her character?s complexities well
The daydream sequences and other allusions to old Bollywood are heartfelt and striking
The structure of two timelines, along with the showcase of various locations’ cultures, is perfectly put together
The core storyline is of nuanced intergenerational tensions that show realistic conflicts and healing

A few unresolved storylines can come across as unfair to the characters, when some problems aren?t really addressed