It was written that at the debut screening in Toronto (last year) there was not a dry eye in the house. Sturla Gunnarsson, one of our smartest film makers, takes us back twenty-four years to show the story and aftermath of one of the most devastating acts of terrorism in the 20th century.
On June 23, 1985, an Air India 747 flying from Montreal to Delhi via London went off radio contact two hundred miles from the Irish coast. At first, ground control did not know what the problem was, so picture if you will the horror they must've felt when they realized that the plane had exploded killing all 329 passengers (some sources say 331). Suspicion was traced back to Khalistani terrorists in Vancouver, who had been monitored by the Canadian Intelligence Service months before the incident (they couldn't get anything conclusive). The movie tracks this investigation and interviews the relatives of many of those who died.
A good portion of Air India 182 is performative. Using actors and locations, Gunnarsson recreates the Canadian investigation, the flight preparation, and the checking through of some of the passengers, whose relatives he managed to contact decades later for interviews. While speaking, many fight to hold back tears.
If there is a problem with the movie, it would be the complexity of the presentation. Air India 182 requires your full attention, and some of the facts which are presented are difficult to process. It also jumps around quite a bit, flashing backwards and forwards.
At least the last third, which is the most emotional part is straightforward. You don't need to be intellectual or political to be moved by what you see. Innocent peoples' lives were lost, many of them children. The child mortality rate was much higher than 9/11.
If it leaves you thinking and reflecting on values like freedom, safety, and justice, which we take for granted, then you'll know that Air India 182 has worked its magic on you. So far it has done so for most of the Canadian media and critics.
