Partition is a sensitive illustration of how traumatic times, in this case the 1947 partition of India, can divide, isolate or destroy. So don’t be put off by a cast list that suggests a much lighter piece of cinema with the inclusion of Neve Campbell as Margaret, an Englishwoman in India, Krisitin Kreuk (from the Canadian TV series Smallville) as Naseem, a Muslim girl who is found and protected by Gian, a Sikh character played by Jimi Mistry (East is East (1999)).

Partition has been the project of director Vic Sarin for 20 years; to match his high expectations the actors underwent a lengthy process to learn how to behave as Muslim/Sikh Indians of the period. Kristin is transformed and Neve Campbell is unrecognisable from her Scream days.

The maturity of performance allows Sarin to realise his dream of moving beyond politics, in order to explore the humanity of relationships. Sarin does not focus on the religious and (emerging) national identities of the characters; the film is not militant and has received warm reviews in both India and Pakistan. Sarin does not, however, shy away from offering a glimpse of the conflict. The scale may be localised at times, but the presence of the border and resulting bureaucracy reminds the viewer of the splintering divisions that run through all lives in post-independent and partitioned India.

The isolation caused by the conflict and the (post-)colonial legacies is perhaps most visible in the character of Margaret. After her brother’s death and despite ‘daddy’s legacy’ she feels no connection with Britain and remains in India where the seemingly inevitable relationship with Walter (John Light) is frustrated as they are repeatedly separated.

Partition shows us that events which make us suffer cannot be rejected or ignored; reconciliation can only function when the process of forgetting (collective) memories begins. The militancy of others threatens to divide and destroy Naseem and Gian, for whom precise injustices dissolve into a general comprehension of human relationships structured around the specificities of their own relationship and their common refusal to join in the fighting. But will such refusal – to fight, to remember – incite others to fight against them?