Birdsong

Over an intimate conversation whilst cooking with her grandmother, eight year-old Nithya learns of the tie between heritage and food and how new borders cut her Chettiar family off from their childhood home.

A young boy witnesses his typically stoic and strong father in a moment of vulnerability

Two men from the Partition generation — Ishar Das Arora, an Indian Hindu who migrated from Pakistan to India, and Iqbal-ud-din Ahmed, 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.