After 15 years fighting to get the historical film The Young Victoria in front of the camera, the Duchess of York now thinks that French-Canadian filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallee was the perfect choice to direct it.

"I think he is one of the finest filmakers I know," Sarah Ferguson told Sun Media as she prepared for The Young Victoria, which she co-produced, to officially close the Toronto International Film Festival as tonight's gala.

The film tells the story of the rise of Queen Victoria to the throne of Great Britain in 1837. There is a focus on her arranged romance with her German first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

This is not exactly the kind of story you would expect Vallee to tackle.

Particularly after his Quebec masterpiece C.R.A.Z.Y., the intimate story of a young gay man's struggle to be himself, brought Vallee acclaim and a clutch of Genie and Jutra Awards. But that is precisely the unique film that brought Vallee to the attention of the Brits for The Young Victoria.

"I think he is just an extraordinary being, really," Ferguson said of Vallee. "You know when someone has just got 'it' -- and he's got 'it'. He's just got great creativity and he is a fine man, a fine man. He is really strong and stoic to what he believes and steadfast in his creativity. It has been an honour!"

Vallee returns the compliment. "She is impressive," Vallee told Sun Media about Ferguson. "They are all impressive, the royals of today. It is like a job, a full time job, being a member of the royal family and portraying this affection and accomplishing so much."

The Young Victoria covers much of the same territory as the Anglo-American TV mini-series Victoria & Albert did in 2001.

"Why tell it again?" Vallee asked rhetorically. "Because love rules all. That's what it says there (on the poster). To me, there was the challenge: Take this opportunity to try to make a film about a love story and make it romantic and a totally new experience. The love there was the thing that really moved me when I read Julian Fellowes' script."

Victoria and Albert felt they were soulmates, Vallee said, "even though it was a fixed marriage, an organized, arranged marriage. This story, it is so romantic and it is so beautiful to believe in."

Vallee believes that he can bring something fresh to the story as an outsider. "Exactly! Since I wasn't from England and I focused so much on this aspect of love, I gave it a new perspective, an angle, an approach.

"At the same time, because I wasn't from that world, I wanted to be confident on the set and I wanted to know what to say to the actors, to direct them. So that's where I felt nervous at the beginning and I needed help. I needed to research and become a student and read and read and read. And I surrounded myself with experts, with historical advisors."

Ultimately, Vallee said, he feels he made the right film. "I felt privileged and the film has a very British feel."

So far, he said, no one in Quebec has shown any resentment towards him for telling a British story -- all in English and a bit of German.

"No, I don't feel any ... not yet! Maybe when the film will be released. So far, I'm just experiencing and feeling a pat on the back. They are proud as can be, I guess. I can feel that. They are happy for me."

And he is not abandoning Quebec cinema. "No, not at all. I have this project that I would like to do in Quebec next, although I also have this American film that I'm about to sign up for." He won't say what it is.

"Well, since I haven't signed it (the contract) I was told to shut up. But the other one, the French-Canadian one, that could become a co-production of France. That's at Telefilm and SODEC right now and we will probably shoot next year."