Concrete Valley: A Refugee Family Carves a Life on the Line Between High Rise and Green Valley

By Chris Knight

Rating: B+

Straddling the line between drama and documentary, Concrete Valley uses a mix of professional and first-time actors to tell the story of Rashid and Farah (Hussam Douhna, Amani Ibrahim), recent immigrants from Syria who have settled with their young son in the Toronto neighbourhood of Thorncliffe Park.

That community also straddles a line, being at once close to nature, snuggled up against the verdant Don Valley, and yet resolutely urban; crammed with high-rise apartments, a legacy of mid-20th-century Toronto planning, not to mention the parkway winding through said valley. Hence the title.

Rashid and Farah (Hussam Douhna and Amani Ibrahim) in Concrete Valley

The movie has a sparse, observational style; more fodder for those who would compare the French-born Canadian director Antoine Bourges with the late Robert Bresson. Bourges is said to have worked with his actors to create their stories, drawing on their own lives.

We learn almost in passing in an early scene that Rashid and Farah’s marriage was an arranged one, a fact that will be difficult to forget as we watch them drift apart in their new home.

He was a doctor back in Aleppo, and now operates as an unlicensed GP in the neighbourhood, sometimes all but foisting himself on reluctant, would-be patients. She used to be an actor, and now works in a pharmacy, but slowly discovers a drive to connect with and give back to the community.

For both, the nearby green space offers a spiritual refuge, though not one they ever seem to share together.

I wanted a smidgeon more out of Concrete Valley than I got. There are beginnings of relationships that feel like they could go into more interesting places, if only the film ran a little longer than 90 minutes. And the decision to make them five-year residents of Thorncliffe seems odd. Why are they only now coming out of their shells in their new homeland?

Regardless, Concrete Valley is a loving, lovely portrait of a corner of the city that, unless you live there, is probably either a blank spot on your map or a region you drive through to get somewhere else. (I stopped by several times for COVID vaccines, as it happens.)

Watch it alongside Clement Virgo’s Brother, Scarborough by Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson, and the underappreciated Wexford Plaza from Joyce Wong, for a sense of the people and stories that make the city’s heart beat.

Concrete Valley. Directed by Antoine Bourges. Starring Hussam Douhna, and Amani Ibrahim. Playing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox from July 21, and in Vancouver and Montreal later this summer.