The Queen of My Dreams, a Canadian-Pakistani film, will be premiered at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on September 8.

A Pakistani woman living in Toronto is unable to connect with her conservative mother in this comedic drama.

When her father suddenly dies on a trip back to Pakistan, Azra embarks on a Bollywood-inspired journey through real and imagined memories. A focus of her memories is her mother’s youth in Karachi and her own coming-of-age in rural Canada.

It is directed by Fawzia Mirza and stars Amrit Kaur, Nimra Bucha, Hamza Haq, Gul e Rana, Ali A Kazmi, Meher Jaffri, Bakhtawar Mazhar, Adnan Jaffar, and more.

“This experience was a dream come true for me, as I always dreamed of making a feature film in Pakistan,” Mirza said.

The film is also a “unique cross-border collaboration” as Pakistan-based producers Kamil Chima and Carol Noronha collaborated with Canadian producers Jason Levangie, Marc Tetreault, and Andria Wilson Mirza for a 30-day-spell in Karachi last year followed by a 10-day-spell in Nova Scotia.

The film’s multiple time periods were brought to life by Canadian cinematographer Matt Irwin and Production Designer Michael Pierson in collaboration with Karachi-based Cyrus Kyranjia and Imran Naeem, Fizza Ejaz and Faiz Rohani, and Minahil Chima and Nanson Gill.

The Pakistani team included 1st AD Farjad Akhtar and Unit Production Manager Ameer Hamza, both of whom worked with Noronha on In Flames, which had its world premiere at Cannes earlier this year. In Flames Producer Anam Abbas is also an Executive Producer on The Queen of My Dreams,” state the press release.