A Passage to Ottawa is a superb family film in the league of Kolya, Children of Haven, and Central Station - sans the need for English subtitles - driven by emotions and story plot rather than sex and action.<br /><br />The film is very touching, possibly due to outstanding performance of actors on its racial harmony family theme, or perhaps due to its excellent cinematography and direction, or may be due to its superb story plot centered around a 8 year old boy from India with great east-west music.<br /><br />The story takes place in Canada. The fatherless boy Omi is in search of a comic-card hero to take home to India with him to care for his ailing mother. After a couple of misjudgments, he finds Roland, black captain of a local tour-boat. Omi changes his vision of hero from being white to someone who loves orange soda.<br /><br />The teenage Safia born of Asian Indian father and white Canadian mother, who is taking care of Omi, pretends she has nothing Indian in her. She gets in romance with the much older Roland using Omi as an excuse to meet often with him.<br /><br />The film beautifully presents the cultural mosaic of Canada in the integration perspective. Shot during and after the tulip festival in the spring, the film shows the Canadian capital in a storybook setting.<br /><br />Although visiting from India, Omi surprisingly has no accent.