After the death of her father, a Canadian-Pakistani woman travels to Pakistan where she discovers her mother’s rebellious past.
While she watches with her blonde Sharon (Charlie Boyle) her mother’s favorite film Mariam (Nimra Bucha, imperial), a Bollywood bluette, Azra (Amrit Kaur), Canadian born to Pakistani parents, is surprised when Sharon points out to her that the actress in the film plays both the mother and the wife of the main actor. “That must be weird for him, right? »
Well, in The Queen of My Dreamspromising first feature film by Fawzia Mirza (the series Hidden Canyons), the lively Amrit Kaur interprets with the same passion Azra, who has not yet made her coming out to his parents, and his mother Mariam in his youth alongside Hamza Haq, who plays the suave Hassan, father of Azra and husband of Mariam throughout all eras.
Forced to leave Nova Scotia to go to Pakistan after the sudden death of Hassan, Azra, who finds her mother too traditional, will discover through her family’s stories that Mariam was not so different from her in 1969 , or 30 years ago.
First a short film, a play (Me, My Mom & Sharmilla), then a feature film, The Queen of My Dreams proves to be yet another variation on the conflictual relationship between a mother and her daughter. Evoking The Persian Portraita charming comedy-drama by Maryam Keshavarz released in December, the story offered by Fawzia Mirza focuses more on the mother’s youth, her search for the perfect suitor who can bring her to America and her great thirst for freedom.
While she neglects to develop the story in the present, thus delaying the inevitable reconciliation between the two generations, the filmmaker underlines everything that Pakistani women have lost in a few decades. At the same time, she also salutes their courage and resilience by giving life to a plethora of female characters, each more picturesque than the last.
To spice things up, Fawzia Mirza multiplies the nods to Bollywood cinema that her characters are fond of. The problem is that at times, these passages of assumed kitsch, carried by the catchy music of Alysha Brilla and the dapper photo of Matt Irwin, blur the boundaries between the memories and the fantasies of the protagonists, creating thus a certain confusion in the chronology of events.
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Drama
The Queen of My Dreams
Fawzia Mirza
Amrit Kaur, Nimra Bucha, Hamza Haq
1:37 a.m.