It may be a Canadian family film, but A Passage to Ottawa is well worth seeing
Kevin Mager
May 31, 2002

Watching Gaurav Seth’s A Passage to Ottawa reminded me of two truths: first, that Canadian movies don’t have to wear their existential crises on their sleeves; and second, that technically solid, well-scripted movies aren’t necessarily art films.

A Passage to Ottawa has won a slew of awards at film festivals around the world, including the Glass Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival (family film section), Best Film at the Austin Film Festival in Texas and Best Film at the Sprockets Festival of Family Films in Toronto. A good family movie like this one should appeal to a broad cross-section of people. Keeping with that spirit, Jameel Khaja’s script doesn’t forsake even the most incidental character’s development and gives enough lines to each member of the likable, realistic cast to give us a good sense of their individualities.

A Passage to Ottawa is the story of a young boy, Omi (Nabil Mehta), who arrives in Ottawa after a long flight from India. Greeted by his Uncle Jalal (Ivan Smith), Omi brings a lot of baggage but no mother; she remains in India, dying of tuberculosis. Rather than pulling heavy-handedly at our heartstrings, however, the story follows Omi on his quest to find a superhero figure strong enough to take him back to India so that Omi can care for his bedridden mom.

Omi’s penchant for disobeying his new family and wandering Ottawa’s foreign streets seemed to me, at first, to be a little precocious for boy who is about six years old. But what else can he do? His cousin Safia (Amy Sobol) isn’t interested in getting to know him (at least initially), and his aunt (Franceen Brodkin) and uncle, though concerned and helpful, are too busy to do anything for Omi’s entertainment other than buy him a videogame. A boy of few words, his strongest ties are to his mother, who appears only in dreamlike sequences and as the narrator of an animated sequence telling the legend of the city of heroes. Because mother knows best, Omi convinces himself that he can and must find someone to get himself home.

Immigrant song

One of A Passage to Ottawa’s most invigorating aspects is its ability to address the conflicts faced by immigrants and families of mixed race without allowing these realities to overshadow the personalities of its characters. A story’s moral statement can sometimes unnecessarily outweigh its human aspects, leaving our understanding of these players defined more by the trials they face battling prejudice and discrimination than by the facets of their culture they’re trying hardest to preserve and share. The family in A Passage to Ottawa is presented with a lot of heart and genuine sensitivity. That said, this bright, cheerful coming-of-age film isn’t directed at an immigrant population, or even at a Canadian audience, specifically. A little boy is lost in the city; a beautiful, young woman seeks a companion of quality; a brash young man strikes out for adventure; parents struggle to raise their children in the city: these are stories we can all enjoy.

©Kevin Mager, Vue Weekly