I was really excited about this film as I too am an immigrant that grew up in the Toronto suburbs, on the west side, in Mississauga, but the feel and reality of living in the apartment blocks reminded me of my own experiences in such neighborhoods.
The toil, taking multiple buses each and every day to make it on time to sub par underpaid minimum wage job. Working long hours and overtime to get that 1.5x bump... I could totally understand the predicament this family found themselves in and the sacrifices they made to keep their heads above water.
That said, being polish racial profiling was not an extra burden that we had to carry. Still it was easy to feel out of place around those that had big houses multiple cars and seemingly little hardship in comparison...
Luckily, with two working parents doing overtime to the max, we were able to buy a semi-detached house in the burbs. When I turned 16, I could drive the parents car and the old life felt like a bad nightmare.
I remember for 5 years after moving to our new house, in the burbs these recuring dreams of waking up in the old apartment, carpets in the hallway that needed to be changed last decade, garbage chute smelling foul as you got close to it, the stairways reeking of urine you wake up in a cold sweat being glad it was only a nightmare.
Could it have been different with only 1 parent and police profiling, you bet!
