| 2022 | Erfan Saadati,Omi Zola Gupta,Sparsh Ahuja,Stephen Stephenson |
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“By immersing the viewer in migration journeys on either side of the border, Child of Empire is a reminder that it is ordinary people that suffer the most when nationalisms are created and torn apart.”
Sparsh Ahuja, Artist, to Docubase
Child of Empire is a 17-minute animated virtual reality (VR) docu-drama experience immersing viewers in one of the largest forced migrations in human history: the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan.
The film takes audiences through a deeply personal perspective of this epic historical event. Two men from the Partition generation — an Indian Hindu who migrated from Pakistan to India and a Pakistani Muslim who made the opposite journey — share childhood memories of their experiences while playing a board game. As the two men unpack their memories, audiences embody the experience of a 7-year-old child at key points in the migration. Child of Empire offers a powerful counter-narrative that lends a fresh perspective on the effects of forced migration on everyday individuals.
Through evocative storytelling, combining the power of VR and the emotive attributes of animation, Child of Empire puts the viewer in the shoes of a migrant in 1947. It is directly inspired by real-life accounts of three Partition witnesses from both sides of the border. Built for Oculus Quest with Unity, the experience includes two interactive moments that embody the viewer inside the world of the Partition. During a sequence pre-migration, the viewer is invited to play Holi amongst members of different religious communities as one of the characters recounts the syncretic festive culture in his ancestral village. When the characters are forced to uproot, the viewer is planted inside a train leaving Lahore (Pakistan) for Delhi (India) and is able to explore the carriage (reminiscent of Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan) with the aid of a virtual gas-lamp. Throughout Child of Empire, the scenes play out in a way thats sheds light on the historical context that led to the migration as well as the personal stories.
This interactive animated VR documentary is a part of Project Dastaan, a larger initiative to reconnect Partition refugees with their childhood homes through VR. Child of Empire had its world premiere at Sundance Festival 2022.
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