The 410 is a new web drama series being streamed on CBC Gem, and it’s shot on location in Brampton.
Created by Supinder Wraich, the series stars Wraich as Suri, a young twentysomething Canadian woman of South Asian heritage. Suri has a troubled history with her family, and when she returns to her hometown of Brampton after her father is arrested for smuggling cocaine, she finds herself in something much more dangerous.
Wraich says that the series was based on a 2011 news story about a number of Canadian South Asian truck drivers being arrested at the border for smuggling drugs.
“It sort of rocked me because this is an aspect of my community I know very little about,” says Wraich. Hearing the stories led her to do more research on the subject and meet with a lawyer who had represented some of the accused truck drivers in court.
All of her research led to the creation of The 410, a three-episode web drama series on CBC Gem. The director of The 410 Renuka Jeyapalan says that the show itself is about taking a look at an ethnic family with flaws.
“This story, at the heart, is about family — and every family is flawed. Every family is dysfunctional in its own way,” says Jeyapalan. “The immigrant family isn’t always depicted that way. There’s one portrayal of them in the media usually. Let’s tell a more complicated story about complex, deeply flawed people — and they just feel real.”
You can watch The 410 here.
