This film was initially inspired by my fascination with the East Toronto neighbourhood of Thorncliffe Park. While finishing a previous film, I would drive past these modernist tower blocks looming over the city’s verdant Don Valley, and felt drawn to this failed utopian architecture. I wanted to get closer to this place, to understand it.
I began visiting the area and discovered that it functions as an arrival city, a first landing spot for new immigrants to Canada. The diversity of the community makes it quite vibrant, while I also noted a sense of isolation from the rest of the city, both spatial and psychological.
Couples are the ultimate relationship with the other, and we were fascinated by this idea of authenticity, of finding oneself in a new place while navigating this shared identity.
I was granted permission to attend English classes for adults in the neighbourhood, and got along particularly well with the Syrian newcomers. I was interested in their stories and wanted to collaborate with them, to create a feature narrative together. I invited my friend, the Toronto-based Syrian filmmaker Teyama Alkamli, to co-write this film with me, and we began working with a mix of professional and non-professional actors from the neighbourhood through guided improvisations.
What came to interest us in the characters of Rashid and Farah are the difficulties they face in their efforts to maintain both their relationship and sense of self. Couples are the ultimate relationship with the other, and we were fascinated by this idea of authenticity, of finding oneself in a new place while navigating this shared identity. The question then is not how can we stay together, but how can we change together? It felt like this neighborhood offered a particularly evocative site to explore this question.
Antoine Bourges
