TORONTO - Domestic violence is never a pretty topic. Yet in the hands of Canadian director Deepa Mehta this universal cultural shame is fodder for one of the most moving films of her career.
"Heaven on Earth" begins with a young Indian woman (Preity Zinta), who is meeting her future husband and family for the first time.
Everything seems like a dream come true to the young bride: Her fianc锟� (Indian actor Vansh Bhardwaj) is handsome and all things indicate that she's made the perfect match for her future happiness.
"Sadly that's never the way it works in real life," Mehta joked before journalists at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Soon after they are married, the perfect husband turns physically abusive.
However, his brutality is not intentional -- it's an expression of the many frustrations he feels after carrying the burdens for his traditional family.
"She sees the face of the man she loves. But he shows her this other side, one that is far removed from the sweetness in him that she first loved," says Zinta.
"You hear so many stories like this all around the world," says Mehta, who let this project gel in her in mind for several years before she began shooting.
"For many immigrant women the idea of calling 911 in the middle of a fight with their husbands doesn't kick in. It's completely foreign to them. That's just the truth of it," says Mehta.
In India today women still fear fighting for their right to safety within a marriage, says Zinta.
"When you marry and leave your parents home that's it. You've got a new home now. No matter what happens, you simply don't leave it."
That attitude is not good enough for Mehta.
Unveiling her film like an old Indian fantasy, Mehta's rich, beautifully layered story takes this troubled young couple on a journey of revelation.
Eventually both characters come to terms with who they are and what they are not. Ultimately the process -- through its pains and joys -- brings the pair closer to fulfilling their own dreams and their shared wish for happiness.
"It's really shocking to me to see how so many immigrants come here for a new life and yet stay stuck in the past," says Mehta.
"Look at the way many immigrants live. They stay together in their own little communities once they settle into a new country. Of course poverty has a lot do with that. But it's more than that. It's hard to change cultural attitudes about domestic violence when it's just accepted."
