“Me, My Mom & Sharmila,”Fawzia Mirza has directed her feature-directing debut as a queer Muslim writer/director.
The film will feature Amrit Kaur, the breakout star of Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble’s HBO Max series “The Sex Lives of College Girls”Hamza Haq won the Canadian Screen Awards for CTV Medical Drama in 2021 and 2022. “Transplant”; and Nimra Booka (“Ms. Marvel,” “Churails”).
Set in 1999, the film follows Azra (Kaur) over 48 hours as she travels from her home in Canada to her parents’ homeland of Pakistan to bury her father (Haq). Azra is unable to connect with her mother Mariam (Bucha), but when she returns to Pakistan, she discovers unexpected similarities between them.
Adapted from Mirza’s stage play of the same name, “Me, My Mom & Sharmila” is produced by Jason Levangie and Marc Tetreault for Shut Up & Colour Pictures (“Night Blooms”Baby Daal Productions (Andria Wilson-Mistza“Noor & Layla”) and executive produced by Damon D’Oliveira, with the support of Telefilm Canada and the Canada Media Fund in partnership with Crave and CBC Films. Development of the project was supported by SFFILM, Toronto International Film Festival’s Writers Studio and Filmmaker Lab, The Gotham, Ontario Creates’ International Financing Forum, Inside Out’s Financing Forum and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Production will start in Nova Scotia and Canada in late 2022.
Haq will be seen in the independent film “Delia’s Gone,”Romantic comedy with Stephan James & Marisa Thomasei “With Love and a Major Organ,” based on Julia Lederer’s bestselling novel and French-Canadian comedy “Viking,”It will be premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2022.
Bucha will appear in a leading role in Focus Features’ “Polite Society,”Nida Manzoor, British writer-director of this action comedy (“We are Lady Parts”).
Mirza was named White House Champion for Change in Asian American Art and Storytelling 2016 Mirza’s short film “The Syed Family Xmas Eve Game Night”TIFF 2021: World Premiere “Signature Move,”She co-wrote, produced, starred and starred in the feature with Shabana, an Indian thespian. It was premiered at SXSW 2017
Mirza, along with producer Andria Wilson Mirza, co-founded Baby Daal Productions. They also served as advisors for Sundance 2021 documentary “Sirens”They are currently producing queer Muslim documentaries. “Coming Around.”