Teeming with color, energy, and the vibrance of fresh faces, Queen of My Dreams swings between 1970s Karachi and modern-day Canada. The story follows the journey of a young lesbian Pakistani Canadian woman as she grapples with strained family dynamics and the sudden death of her father.
The film is Fawzia Mirza’s directorial debut and has made waves worldwide, making it to TIFF’s annual Top Ten List in Canada. We sat down with Mirza to discover more about her journey, passion, and the creative vision for the film.
WHY FILMMAKING?
I didn’t start as a filmmaker. I started as an actor but before that, I was a lawyer. I did theatre in high school, played an instrument, and was on the speech team. When it came to college, my family wanted me to ‘get serious’ about my future. I got an English and Political Science degree and went to law school in Chicago. It was during law school that my love of acting reignited. I took an acting class and loved it. I promised myself that I would take the bar exam but after that, I would pursue an acting career. I lawyered by day and acted by night. Eventually, I started writing because there were no roles that represented me. I made short films and web series—wrote an indie feature film in Chicago called Signature Move, where the great Shabana Azmi played my mother. Twenty years after Fire, where she played a lesbian character, in Signature Move, she played the mother of a lesbian. It was a moment. I started directing in 2020 with Queen of my Dreams. I was looking for a director to make the film but I finally realized that I was the right director. I was the right person all along.
INSPIRATION
I had two ‘coming outs’ in my life—once as a lawyer turned actor and the other as a queer person. When I was coming out, I was grappling with my identity, whether I could be queer and Muslim and still love Bollywood romance. So I made art as a way of trying to make peace with myself. That art was a three-minute short film called The Queen of My Dreams. Making that art saved my life. Sharing it gave me community. I adapted that short film into a play and then into this feature. To love myself, I had to understand myself. So, the central theme of this film and much of my work is ‘how do we become who we are?’
FILM’S MESSAGE
There is a deep connection to the queer Muslim community because we are at the center of the story. Still, this is a mother-daughter story—a universal story of being different from your parent. It’s a story that centers on love and compassion. Compassion for the people in your life. And it is knowing that the people around you have their own story, their journey.
CASTING PROCESS
We worked with casting directors in Canada and Pakistan. For the role of ‘Azra,’ I knew we needed someone who could play two roles well, someone who had the capacity for humor, fear, grief, and depth to be both these women. I also love to cast people who have the spark of that character already within them. When I met and auditioned Amrit Kaur over Zoom, she had that spark. And she was committed to the project. Nimra Bucha was someone I’d seen in Ms. Marvel, Polite Society and Pakistani dramas—I have dreamt of working with her. Ayana Manji came to us because her father Rizwan Manji is an incredible actor, and I knew his kids were actors. Then, I met Hamza Haq during a Ramadan Zoom and he seemed, even in our brief meeting, like the perfect father/boyfriend/husband in this movie.
BALANCING THE ROLES OF A DIRECTOR, WRITER, PRODUCER AND ACTOR
I came up as an indie creator, so juggling more than one job WAS the job. But I don’t think that’s unique to the film world—a lot of us have to do or be more than one thing in our daily lives to survive. I also have an incredible wife and producing partner, Andria Wilson Mirza, without whom I couldn’t do any of this. But I will also add that I’m no longer acting. I shifted to mostly writing/directing, and that focus has also made all the difference.
Words Aliya Anand
Date 03.10.2024