Concrete Valley

Rashid is a doctor, Farah an actor, although that was back in Syria, and their life here in Toronto is different. It’s been five years already, time enough for their son Ammar to become a boy, time enough for routines to become established, although not time enough for everything to have settled; the calm and sunlight speak also of stasis. Rashid attends English classes, helps the neighbours with their medical ailments, tries to fix the boiler, while Farah works at a drugstore and has joined a local community initiative; they are together, but they are also apart. It’s not a hard existence but it’s not any easy one either. It’s even difficult to find quite the right adjective to describe it: one situation follows another and none receives greater emphasis than the others, each is unique, multivalent and ambivalent in its own way, quietly conveying a set of meanings that accumulate but don’t define. It’s like the forest that Rashid walks into at the beginning of the film and, in some way, he’s maybe there the whole time: silent, ominous, peaceful, detached, apart. A place of refuge, a place of reflection, a place of fear, a place that’s real.
by Antoine Bourges
with Hussam Douhna, Amani Ibrahim, Abdullah Nadaf, Lynn Nanume
Canada 2022 English, Arabic 90’ International premiere

With

  • Hussam Douhna
  • Amani Ibrahim
  • Abdullah Nadaf
  • Lynn Nanume

Crew

Director Antoine Bourges
Screenplay Antoine Bourges, Teyama Alkamli
Cinematography Nikolay Michaylov
Editing Lindsay Allikas
Sound Design Lucas Prokaziuk
Sound Lucas Prokaziuk
Production Design Amir Kiani
Costumes Asoomii Jay
Assistant Director Meelad Moaphi
Producers Shehrezade Mian, Antoine Bourges
Executive Producers Kazik Radwanski, Dan Montgomery

General Use

Antoine Bourges

Born in Paris in 1983, he went on to study film. His short and medium-length films as well as his feature debut Fail to Appear have been screened at international festivals. Concrete Valley is his second feature film. In addition to his directing work, he teaches film at the University of British Columbia.

Filmography

2010 Woman Waiting; 15 min. 2012 East Hastings Pharmacy; 48 min. 2015 William in White Shirt; 12 min. 2017 Fail to Appear; 70 min. 2022 Concrete Valley; 90 min.

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2023