Fawzia Mirza. Photo Credit: Monica Schipper.
Filmmaker Fawzia Mirza chatted about writing and directing “The Queen of My Dreams,” which stars Amrit Kaur.
The film follows a 22-year-old queer Muslim graduate student Azra Malik (played by Amrit Kaur), who is estranged from her conservative mother, Mariam (Nimra Bucha).
When her father dies suddenly during a trip to Pakistan, Azra is pulled back to her ancestral home for the burial and into a journey through memory, identity, and reconciliation.
‘The Queen of My Dreams’
On the idea for this film, Mirza said, “It started as a short film in 2012. It was a three-minute short film that I made before I knew I was a filmmaker.”
“It was a really public conversation about a really public struggle about whether I could be queer, Muslim and love Bollywood romance all at the same time. I made that and submitted it to film festivals,” she elaborated.
“The making of it was super important and it saved my life,” she admitted. “It helped me process all of these confusing and complicated feelings I was having about my identity inside.”
“Sharing it, opened the door for the film festival community and the queer film festival space, which made me feel like I had a home,” she added.
Lessons learned from the screenplay
On the lessons learned from this screenplay, Mirza reflected, “Writing the screenplay was so complicated. That was a big process of learning adaptation of a work. I’ve taken a lot of that into all the other writing that I do.”
“At this point, I’ve adapted books and other projects. I am often thinking about what is nonnegotiable in adaptation. You don’t need to take all of it, you can take a little bit, but what is that? I learned that as a writer and as a creator,” she elaborated.
“In reflection, the screenplay and the movie has shown me my growth as a person,” she acknowledged.
“I believe the movie is more focused now, and that’s also a reflection of me being more focused,” she admitted.
“I am really glad that everything happens for a reason, and everything happens when it’s supposed to. This is a projection of love and compassion rather than one of anger and resentment,” she explained.
Advice for young and aspiring filmmakers
For young and emerging filmmakers, she said, “I think about having grace with yourself about your journey because it usually doesn’t happen overnight.”
“9.9 times out of 10, people don’t come out of nowhere; they’ve been doing it the whole time, and you just didn’t know about it because they weren’t ‘famous’ enough to get into TV and films,” Mirza elaborated.
“Having grace with yourself is building a relationship. Having patience is so important and so is knowing who you are,” she added.
Success
Regarding her definition of the word success, Mirza responded, “I think success has changed. When I started, I used to think it was something glitzy.”
“Now, I think of Hollywood as a pyramid scheme,” she observed. “You have to know yourself outside of it or it will devour you. You have to be grounded and have your self-worth coming from outside of the business otherwise you are disposable or dispensable.”
“Now, I think of success as being able to take care of my family and to be able to provide people jobs,” she said.
“Success is being able to create space for other people’s ideas and brilliance and ideas. I think of success as being able to inspire someone and being able to create for us and not for me,” she explained.
Closing thoughts on the movie
For fans and viewers, she remarked, “I hope this movie gives people joy and hope. We are living in tough times on every level. Every piece of the identity is represented in this film, and everyone is being targeted right now.
“I hope this movie gives us hope and know that we are not alone, and that there is a better life and that we deserve it,” Mirza concluded.
To learn more about screenwriter and director Fawzia Mirza, follow her on Instagram.
Read More: “The Queen of My Dreams” review.
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