“It’s about my life. This movie is probably the closest thing to a documentary, without it being a documentary.” – Filmmaker Ian Bawa on transforming personal grief and his relationship with his late father into Strong Son.
After years of directing short films and television, Winnipeg-born South Asian filmmaker Ian Bawa makes a powerful directorial feature debut with Strong Son. Expanding on his acclaimed 2020 short of the same name, Bawa returned to the Toronto International Film Festival with a deeply personal, remarkable story that explores the raw emotional complexities of caregiving.
Strong Son premiered at the festival as part of the Discovery selection and follows Harvey (Mandeep Sodhi), a South Asian bodybuilder who cares for his aging father, Jagdeep Singh (Armit Parbhakar). When Harvey returns home to care for him, he faces challenges that demand a lot of responsibility. In Strong Son, Bawa explores the complexities of caregiving and personal aspirations. During this exclusive interview, Bawa talks about turning his three-minute short film into a tribute to his late father.
Kristin Ciliberto (KC): Thank you for sharing something so personal; I really enjoyed it. Why was it important for you to tell this story?
Ian Bawa (IB): Well, it’s based on a short film that I did back in 2020 starring my dad and Mandeep, who’s in the feature as well, and that 3-minute little short film I made, which was about a dad watching his bodybuilder son work out, got into TIFF; I don’t know, but people liked it. And a few weeks after, I was kind of already like, there’s something here, right? A feature, and a few weeks later, my dad died, and I was like, what is this movie now? And I was still developing it. But I had to go through the grief process of everything; therapy as well. I made two other shorts that are basically about father, son, grief, mental health, and male toxicity, which I call these three films, the sad dad trilogy, and it led to this, which is the feature, and it got me to the idea of what this feature was going to be, which is what I feel about mental health in men. I think a lot of people struggle with it, and no one talks about it. I also secretly am not a sports guy, and I want to make a sports film with no sports.
Or I want to lie to the audience and be like, I’m gonna build a giant wrestling thing; you never see wrestling.
KC: I was so invested in the father-and-son journey itself, but getting into it, because I know you said this is based on your short story and the trilogy, like you mentioned, what was the most challenging part about expanding on Strong Son?
IB: I think again, like if we’re going back to square one to when the short happened, because I was kind of already adapting it into a feature before it went to TIFF, I was kind of like, there’s something here; I think just three minutes I was showing it to friends, they liked it. I was just gonna put it online, but they were like, you should send it out. It was shot on Super 8.
So it has, like, a griminess to it, so I think it was like, this thing was like, what is the story? I struggled with the idea of: is this a story about a bodybuilder? And the dad training him and they go on the road, and Little Miss Sunshine, and they try to get to this, you know, I was playing with all these stupid elements that are very cheesy. I think it just took this long to be like no, it’s about my life, like this movie, is probably the closest thing to a documentary, without it being a doc, which has happened to some capacity like me, crying in a locker room in this, the giant muscular bodybuilder, coming up and asking me if I needed medical assistance and stuff and you know, like so, so I think it was just finding what this was in the end and what the story was going to be, and I’m happy it became this, which was, you know, mental health and struggling with mental health that I think people relate to. Right now, we talk more about mental health. Oh, I remember I sweated all the time in junior high, and I didn’t understand, and my parents took me to go get Botox and stuff under my arms like it was anxiety; I didn’t know what that was. I had anxiety all the time, and I didn’t know, and that’s what it was. It didn’t happen once I got confidence and, you know, felt better about myself
KC: I want to get into one part that really stood out to me in the film. Your dad narrates part of the film. Why did you want to include your father’s voice in the project?
IB: Well, I would say, like I said, like, there’s a lot of it, like the 911 call is the real 911 call that happened, like I got a copy of the 911 call from, and that’s the actual 911 operator; my voice is in there. There’s me crying in it and stuff. So it’s all very personal, but more than that, my dad was temporary at first, and we thought maybe, but I left it in the film. It took a long edit; I ended up recutting the film from scratch back in February. So it’s incredible that it’s at TIFF.
My friend Marcus and I also edited it together and got it there; we were at TIFF, but when I recut it, it was like, “Dad’s temp.” And then it was like. He fits, and I’m not questioning it. Honestly, I think people who know know, but those who watch it, if we do it right and you’re invested enough, you don’t really notice it’s a different voice, and people’s voiceover can be different. It’s behind it. If it broke the film, I think it’d be more noticeable, but it’s fine. And yeah, in the end, it’s about my, like, I’ve been doing a legacy thing, like I’m keeping my dad alive.
KC: It’s keeping your dad’s spirit alive in a wonderful way. Now, getting into a little more about the film, Strong Son gives audiences a very raw look. I love how you’ve brought in the documentary aspect, and you show an unpolished way of caring for a loved one. You see, frustration can get messy and exhaust you. What mattered most to you in capturing that relationship honestly?
IB: Oh, man, it’s funny. I think the hard part with editing, and what I found in the edit, was the lack of communication, because I was like, I purposely didn’t make the character Harvey talkative, because I wasn’t sure if I’d get a real bodybuilder who could act, and I sort of ended up casting my friend, the guy who’s been in, like, most of the films, and he’s still a bodybuilder. He’s been a bodybuilder most of his life, since he was 18, but I wanted to show what this character needs to be. I want him to be internal, not a big talker, and for him and his dad not to talk to each other. The issue in the early edits with our other editors was that when Harvey wouldn’t talk, Dad would say something like, “Just look at Dad.” It kind of came off as, assholey, you know, a little like, oh, you’re just being an asshole to your dad, and so finding that balance was hard. I think part of it was finding the right takes for both actors, plus a strong score. I always wanted it to be a Garden State, a soundtrack film, because I was very specific. And I wrote the music in the script. None of the editors were doing it, so I said I needed to cut it to see if it works. One editor told me it’s impossible. None of these; this music sucks. And so I proved him wrong.
KC: Now, getting into the casting of this film, which I really enjoyed, Mandeep, who’s a professional bodybuilder, gives an unbelievable performance and very emotional performance. What made him the right fit for the role? How did the character, and how did his real-life experience shape the character?
IB: I don’t know anything about bodybuilding. I just grew up with my dad saying, “You should be strong”, whatever, and me coming back from the gym. And you know, especially in high school, I lost like 60 lbs, and I got really skinny, and I started going to the gym, and I said, “Dad, look.”
KC: It is the high school glow-up. It happened to me too!
IB: Yeah, yeah, yeah, 100%. I think every two years, I have a glow-up. I’ve been on a cut, and I’m on another glow-up. But no, and so I think it was partly the idea that like bodybuilding is the truest form of like, in my head, being strong, but the idea of bodybuilding there like is kind of like there’s a kind of lame or kind of boring, because they just stand on stage and smile. So, and I’m like, if you’re gonna be, if you’re gonna show strength, lift stuff. So that’s why I said the first dream sequence would be him lifting, but Mandeep showed me what body aesthetic to aim for, how to pose, and which poses would work. I purposely wrote it to be a former bodybuilder. So it was a low-budget film; I couldn’t afford to feed someone in whatever, or train them. I was like, he can be, like, just in the right shape; he looks like he was in the pictures. Funny enough, he competed like a few months ago. He was in better shape now; like, he won a bunch of awards. He’s so insanely trim and cut right now because he just competed. So, like, he had the knowledge of bodybuilding that I didn’t. So he taught me a lot. I’m learning a lot right now because I’m basically doing his program. So I’ve learned a lot more now, but he brought in all the bodybuilding, like Yuvraj Dhesi, who plays Nav; he is a former WWE wrestler. He was a WWE champ; he just left wrestling, and this was his first feature film.
KC: Amazing. And I also want to acknowledge Armit. He was an incredible father, too; the chemistry with the other actors was really strong. I think you got very lucky with every single performance. As for where you shot the film, you shot it in Winnipeg. What did filming in Winnipeg bring to the film’s emotional tone and authenticity?
IB: So the plan was to shoot in fall, but because of everyone’s schedule and everyone’s busy and low budget, and we can’t offer a lot of money, the smartest and annoying thing was to shoot in February because everyone’s not working at that time because it’s just too cold. And everyone’s coming off holiday. So, I never wanted it to be a location film. It’s about people; there’s not much coverage. We never hold on Harvey; we just do data, like you see the backs of people’s heads. So the location isn’t a character, and the winter isn’t a character, too; I purposely don’t want Harvey to wear a hat, and I don’t want people to be cold. I don’t really want to see people put on a jacket or a scarf. You know, I like you’ll see things like that, like I purposely didn’t, so Winnipeg wouldn’t exist as a place, but it’s not about Winnipeg. It is shot in Winnipeg, and it’s Manitoba-made, but yeah, Winnipeg I don’t think is a feature, but unless you know it and you know what the winter is like, it’s more like showing the struggles of taking care of your dad, shoveling the snow to make sure the paths are clear.
KC: What do you hope audiences take away after watching Strong Son? And what does it mean to you to have your film premiere at TIFF?
IB: I will say, what it feels like is relief because of where it was to where it is. When I got the email, I was like, thank God, I didn’t know, and I saw bad versions from other editors. Then I had this one where I was like, did I get it to a 6? I kept joking on set, saying, all we gotta do is make a 6 out of 10; 6 out of 10 means people watch it. And these other editors were giving me 2s, you know, so I was like, oh no.
KC: To me, the movie’s not a 6 out of 10; I really enjoyed it.
IB: Thank you, it took me giving up my life for 3-4 months and sitting in my house by myself, 12-hour days, to get it there, so it was a relief to celebrate and tell everyone. The only issue was getting it delivered on time, because we literally just delivered it. What I want people to take away, honestly, is that someone asked me this question recently, and I was like, I just want them to be happy they watched, they enjoyed it, and they felt something.
The 51st edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) runs September 10–20, 2026
