As the province was partitioned between the new states of Muslim Pakistan and Hindu- dominated India, at least a million people died in religious pogroms so bloody and cruel that they beggar the imagination. Millions more became refugees.

"Earth" brings the horror home by showing it through the eyes of an 8-year-old girl, Lenny (Maia Sethna), who happens to be a member of the privileged, anglicized Parsee minority, and thus a neutral in the conflict between Muslims on one side and Hindus and Sikhs on the other.

You meet her sitting with Shanti (Nandita Das), her beautiful Hindu nanny, in a Lahore park on an idyllic pre-independence afternoon, surrounded by Shanti's male friends and admirers, who come from all of the city's religious communities.

The child's favorite among Shanti's suitors is the roguish Ice Candy Man (Bollywood star Aamir Khan) although the nanny prefers handsome Hasan (Rahul Khanna).

As independence draws near, these men who have been friends for years fall out. Riots spread through the city and little Lenny witnesses a grotesque murder.

As Pakistan comes into being, Sikhs and Hindus flee Lahore for their lives, and the city fills up with bloodied Muslim refugees from India. Still, the inter- religious romance between Hasan and Shanti blossoms. But when Ice Candy Man (a Muslim) goes to meet his sisters' train and finds cars crammed with mutilated corpses, events are set in motion that will change Lenny's world forever.

Indian-Canadian writer-director Deepa Mehta makes the most of a strong cast. Das (who also starred in Mehta's "Fire"), whose character's fate is at the center of the film, gives a particularly poignant performance.

Beautifully photographed and accompanied by A. H. Rahman's haunting score, the film is a stylistic hybrid. It's no Bombay "masala" musical, but it's pacing, use of music and descents into sentimentality feel much more Indian than Western.

And although "Earth" strains to be fair to all parties, it is not what you would call a subtle film. There are more than a few moments (whenever the characters talk politics) when the dialogue is almost laughably crude and unrealistic - even if what we're seeing are the memories of a girl.

There is also a sex scene that is gratuitous even by Western standards. But in the end these flaws don't matter; "Earth" isn't about politics - it's a powerful, moving tale of about real people caught in a historical nightmare.