TORONTO - There乌鸦传媒 a scene in 鈥淪hook鈥 in which the drama乌鸦传媒 lead tells a Toronto hipster that he lives in Scarborough. Her response 鈥 鈥淥ooh, Scarborough鈥 鈥 comes off as if he just name-dropped a war zone.
鈥淭hat literally happened to me,鈥 says director and co-writer Amar Wala, who grew up in the multicultural east-Toronto suburb.
鈥淚 didn't know that Scarborough had this dangerous reputation growing up. To me, it was just Scarborough. It was fine.鈥
The moment stuck with him.
鈥淚 told myself, 鈥業'm going to put this in a movie one day.鈥 It took a while, but here it is.鈥
鈥淪hook鈥 stars Saamer Usmani as Ash, a South Asian twentysomething trying to make it as a novelist while navigating his family乌鸦传媒 unravelling, a romantic entanglement and the quiet class divisions of the Greater Toronto Area.聽
The film, out Friday, draws from a turbulent stretch in Wala乌鸦传媒 mid-20s, when he was chasing his filmmaking dreams amid his parents鈥 divorce and his father乌鸦传媒 subsequent Parkinson乌鸦传媒 diagnosis.
鈥淚t was a lot of things all hitting at once, when you're supposed to figure out what it means to be an adult,鈥 Wala says in a virtual call from Toronto.聽
鈥淎t the time, I was doing what I think a lot of us do when we're writers: travel downtown, sit in coffee shops, write 鈥 or pretend to write most of the time 鈥 and figure out what it actually means to be a working artist.鈥澛
Despite his proximity to the city乌鸦传媒 cultural core, Wala says breaking into the arts community felt like trying to push through an invisible wall.
Wala says he wanted to make a Toronto film that captured the subtle, everyday obstacles that come with being 鈥渁 brown kid from the suburbs.鈥
One recurring gag sees South Asian characters give baristas a 鈥渇ake white name鈥 that's easy to write on coffee cups.
鈥淚t乌鸦传媒 stuff I felt was relatable to a lot of people who live just on the outside of major cities, where you might as well be from another state,鈥 he says.
鈥淭hat distance may be short in terms of kilometres 鈥 you can see the skyline 鈥 but you're not that connected to the arts community or to the power structures or the money of the city, and so that distance feels gigantic.鈥
When Wala started out more than a decade ago, he had no industry connections and no clear path in. While he aspired to make narrative features, documentaries offered a more accessible entry point.聽
His debut doc, 2014乌鸦传媒 鈥淭he Secret Trial 5,鈥 examines Canada乌鸦传媒 post-9/11 use of security certificates to imprison Muslim men without charge.聽
鈥淪hook,鈥 Wala乌鸦传媒 debut scripted feature, co-written with Adnan Khan, isn鈥檛 overtly political. Instead, it centres on Ash乌鸦传媒 personal coming-of-age as he explores a budding romance with barista Claire, played by Amy Forsyth, while trying to deal with the emotional debris left by his parents, played by Bernard White and Pamela Mala Sinha.
Still, the film captures the invisible systems that shape who gets to feel at home in a city like Toronto.
When Ash and his friends miss the last subway train home, they must weather the chaos of the night bus 鈥 known colloquially as 鈥渢he vomit comet.鈥澛
鈥淚t just seems silly that last call is at 2 a.m. but the subway shuts down at 1:30. That tells you who they're actually thinking about when they build these systems,鈥 Wala says.
鈥淪hook鈥 joins a growing wave of Canadian films set in Scarborough 鈥 including 2021乌鸦传媒 鈥淪carborough,鈥 2022乌鸦传媒 鈥淏rother鈥 and this year乌鸦传媒 鈥淢orningside鈥 鈥 and does so with a self-aware nod to its cinematic company.
鈥淭he ends are hot right now,鈥 a publisher tells Ash as he pitches a novel set in the east-end suburb.
Wala suspects Scarborough artists are feeling more pride after years of being 鈥渙n the outside looking in.鈥 But he乌鸦传媒 wary of how quickly the industry can turn authenticity into formula.聽
鈥淎s soon as they realize, 鈥極h, there乌鸦传媒 an audience for this stuff,鈥 they only want to give you the same version of that thing over and over again,鈥 he says.聽
鈥淭hey don鈥檛 understand it乌鸦传媒 a diversity of perspectives from these places that the audience is craving.鈥
Wala hopes 鈥淪hook鈥 challenges the narrow, often dreary portrayals of the area by presenting Scarborough as he remembers it: vibrant, lived-in, lush.聽
鈥淧eople say to me, like, 鈥楽carborough looks so good in the movie. You shot it so beautifully.鈥 And I鈥檓 like, I didn鈥檛 do anything to it,鈥 he says.聽
鈥淲e just used some nice lenses and colour corrected it. It looks gorgeous because that乌鸦传媒 what it looks like. A lot of those bleak depictions of it 鈥 you have to go out of your way to make it look like that.鈥
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 7, 2025.