Vancouver: When Partition opens on 30 screens across Canada on Feb. 2, veteran director and cinematographer Vic Sarin will realize a lifelong dream.

His film is a Romeo and Juliet story, set against the backdrop of the final days of the British Raj and the violent 1947 partition of India, which pitted Muslims against Sikhs upon the creation of Pakistan. Written by Sarin and Patricia Finn, Kristin Kreuk (Smallville) stars as a 17-year-old Muslim girl who falls in love with a 38-year-old Sikh man played by Jimi Mistry (Touch of Pink). Neve Campbell and Thomas Kretschmann (King Kong) play supporting roles.

‘It has been my dream to share the beauty, complexity and universal humanity of this part of the world, this chapter in Indian history, with an international audience,’ says Sarin, who was born in Kashmir in 1945. ‘Many people know about the tragedies of the Holocaust or Africa; it is my hope that it will shed a little light on the conflict still going on today.’

The seeds of the movie come from Sarin’s experiences and memories growing up in India before emigrating to Australia and finally settling in Canada. But despite boasting a career including features, docs and TV movies, either as director (Cold Comfort, Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World) or DOP (Margaret’s Museum, Whale Music), Sarin needed more than 20 years to bring Partition to the screen.

‘I wrote the first treatment in 1981. Everyone who read it loved it, but they weren’t sure about its international appeal,’ he recalls.

Did the popularity of Indo-Canadian flicks like Deepa Mehta’s Water and Bollywood/Hollywood help pave the way for Partition? Sarin emphatically says no.

‘This was in development long before those films. And this is not an Indo film. The setting is India, but the story is universal, much like David Lean’s Dr. Zhivago. This is a Canadian film; it contains the sensibilities that are intrinsically Canadian, such as tolerance and honesty.’

Hooking up with Vancouver’s Sepia Films in 1994 to develop the script, Sarin and producers Tina Pehme (Civic Duty) and Kim Roberts (It’s All Gone Pete Tong), along with exec producer Chris Zimmer (Margaret’s Museum) of Halifax’s imX communications, spent more than 10 years securing funding.

‘I am most proud that this film is all Canadian,’ says Sarin.

The $10-million budget came from Telefilm Canada and The Harold Greenberg Fund, with presales to The Movie Network, Movie Central and CHUM. Seville Pictures distributes in Canada, while Myriad Pictures handles foreign sales.

‘It was originally going to be a copro with South Africa,’ says Sarin, who scouted South African locations. ‘I wanted the grandness and vastness of landscape. I didn’t want to shoot in India because of the logistical nightmares. It’s so difficult.’ But when the copro fell through and Sarin was in India directing the CBC MOW Murder Unveiled, he realized ‘India would work.’

Sarin says his experience as a DOP enabled him to make ‘an epic-style film within budget. As a writer and director I knew what I wanted. As a cinematographer, I knew how to do it.’

He began by shooting most interior shots and a good portion of outdoor scenes in B.C.

‘The production designer [Tony Devenyi] and crew were fantastic. They spent time in India researching and rummaging through antique shops for authentic period props,’ says Sarin, who adds that he got value on his budget.

‘In Canada, when I needed a cow, it was $1,500 bucks. In India I could get a herd for five [dollars],’ he says, laughing.

In B.C., a mustard field in Creston doubled as Punjabi farmlands, and the Ashcroft/Cache Creek region doubled as the Pakistan border. A neighborhood in East Vancouver was transformed into a New Delhi market, with rows of West Coast houses and alder trees digitally replaced with a Delhi skyline. Sarin drew on B.C.’s large Indo-Canadian population for extras.

With a tight three-week schedule in India, Sarin faced tail-end monsoon rains, minor earthquakes, and even commandeered control of a railway station for five days.

‘Instead of fighting with the rain and the light, I worked with it,’ he explains.

Seville’s VP of marketing Victor Rego thinks Partition will have universal appeal.

‘We saw the script and jumped on it right away. We started developing marketing plans three years ago. You don’t see epics like this very often anymore.’

Backed by a $1-million marketing budget, Seville created a website and two-minute trailer shown at ShowCanada and CineQuebec, which he says garnered a huge response from exhibitors and theater owners.

‘We also tested in Toronto and suburbs, and this film is dead-on with our demographic. The love story appeals to women, and the historical aspects appeal to men. It’s dead-on with epics like Titanic,’ says Rego.

A coffee-table book and soundtrack CD will be released within two weeks of Partition’s theatrical release across Canada.

www.partitionthemovie.ca