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Straddling the hazy line between documentary and fiction, the work of Canadian filmmaker Antoine Bourges is intensely concerned with the plights of disadvantaged and marginalized populations. In his latest and most quietly impactful effort to date, Concrete Valley, Bourges turns his gaze toward the North American immigration struggle, further examining the sense of dislocation that often defines his films’ subjects/characters.

The film is set in Thorncliffe Park, a high-immigrant, low-income neighborhood of Toronto whose titular nickname stems from its geographical position nestled up against a lush hillside forest, and it begins with Rashid (Hussam Douhna), a Syrian immigrant, taking a solitary nighttime walk through these tranquil woods. The curiously hushed environment at first suggests a dream, lending Concrete Valley a sense of magical realism that corresponds to mythical tales of strangers traversing strange lands. When Rashid’s impromptu sylvan meanderings are discussed a short time later, he’s warned...

Welcome to Antoine Bourges’ love letter to the Thorncliffe Park apartment complex, better known as “Arrival City”—the usual landing spot for new immigrants coming into Toronto. Titled Concrete Valley and starring a mix of professional and amateur actors blurring the line between fiction and non-fiction, Bourges’ film spends a lot of time with residents to help flesh out their motives and narrative in the form of Rashid (Hussam Douhna) and Farah (Amani Ibrahim), a Syrian couple who have already been living there for five years. The palpable tension in their marriage as he lies in bed while she readies for work reveals things haven’t been easy. There’s little warmth shared between them beyond their love for their young son (Abdullah Nadaf’s Ammar).

Instead it’s mostly tired exasperation as they attempt to survive what has proven an impossibly frustrating transition due to both having to give...

Taking place in the shadows of the Greater Toronto area and a liminal space of poverty, Scarborough isn’t an easy film to shake. A local, low-budget indie premiering in TIFF’s Discovery section, written by Catherine Hernandez (based on her novel) and directed by Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson, the film traces three turbulent childhoods of three families grappling with a system that has set them up to fail and fall through the cracks. Opening with late-night escapes from abusive situations and into housing insecurity, it bursts with a raw immediacy. Shot and edited by co-director Rich Williamson, he brings a Frederick Wiseman-esque sensibility to certain moments within formal institutions—doctors’ offices and a daycare that become a sanctuary beyond their intention.

Scarborough primarily focuses on three young children: Bing (Liam Diaz), a gifted Filipino boy ushered away from his mentally ill father by his loving mother; Laura...