In 1999 Toronto, queer Muslim grad student Azra is happily studying acting and shacking up with her (white, non-Muslim) girlfriend half the globe away from her strictly religious mother Miriam. When her father passes away unexpectedly, Azra returns to Pakistan, her homeland, reliving her childhood memories of growing up in Karachi. Although distance and ideology have driven Azra and Mariam apart, this mother and daughter — seemingly with little in common — forge a new connection at the busy intersection of East and West, past and present.

Evoking the colors and spirit of Bollywood musicals, The Queen of My Dreams is a luminous dramedy about the complicated (and often ubiquitous) bonds between mothers and daughters. Amrit Kaur of Max’s The Sex Lives of College Girls won the Iris Prize for Best Female Performance for her impressive dual performances. Writer/director Fawzia Mirza — a Frameline regular as both an actor (Signature Move, Frameline41) and as a filmmaker (Noor & Layla, Frameline45) — makes her feature directorial debut with this semi-autobiographical triumph, which the Toronto International Film Festival named one of Canada’s Top 10 Films of 2023.