Trailer
Plot summary
Sergeant Michael Dunne is invalided home from the front in 1917, suffering from neurasthenia, and meets the nurse Sarah Mann while he recovers. Back in Calgary he takes a post in the recruitment office. Sarah's younger brother David, whose asthma makes him ineligible, wants to join the army regardless. The Manns are shunned in town once people learn that their father died at Vimy Ridge in German uniform. The father of David's girlfriend, Cassie Walker, uses his influence to get David enlisted, and Sarah holds Michael to blame. Michael rejoins as a private and serves under his mother's maiden name, McCrae, giving Sarah his word that he will keep her brother safe. Sarah herself signs up as a nurse and is posted close to the front lines.
Cast
- Meredith Baileyas Cassie Walker
- Jesse Frechetteas Peters
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Passchendaele (2008)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Paul Gross built the film around his own grandfather. As the old soldier lay in a hospital bed in the last days of his life, his family was mystified by his asking for forgiveness, over and over; only Gross knew that he was speaking to the young German he had killed.
- In November 2005 the Government of Alberta announced a $5.5-million grant to Gross and the film project as part of Alberta's centennial. The overall budget was announced at between $16 million and $20 million, making it the highest-budgeted Canadian-produced film ever.
- The film went on to gross only $4,452,423, well under its $20 million budget. Even so, it received the Golden Reel Award as the top-grossing Canadian film of 2008.
- The film was shot over a period of forty-five days and involved over 200 actors, some of them Canadian Forces soldiers with combat experience in Afghanistan.
