BFI Flare 2024 – Interview writer-director The Queen of My Dreams Fawzia Mirza (video only)

DESCRIBED as a ‘dramedy’ by the writer-director herself, Fawzia Mirza’s ‘The Queen of my Dreams’ recently screened at the BFI Flare (March 13-24) 2024, the festival’s 38th edition.
This festival celebrates LGBTQIA+ in celluloid and Mirza’s tale is one about a gay Canadian Pakistani university aged woman travelling back to Pakistan and enjoying what the country and culture has to offer her there. It also throws a spotlight on her relationship with her mother (Nimra Bucha) following the demise of her father. The film also explores the mother’s life in Karachi in 1969. Mirza talks about the influence of Bollywood growing up in Canada in a very white environment and the impact of a South Asian culture which also led her to Hindi cinema icon Sharmila Tagore and how much she wanted the film to express joy, hope and fun. It most certainly is…

Production credits
A Big Talent Media Production for http://www.asianculturevulture.com
Camera/editing: Harry Clegg
Presenter: Sailesh Ram (editor of www.asianculturevulture.com)

This interview was shot during London Film Festival (October 4-15) 2023 after the film enjoyed its UK premiere, following its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2023.