TIFF 2026: Our Review of ‘Strong Son’

Posted in Festival Coverage, Movies, TIFF 2026 by - September 18, 2026
TIFF 2026: Our Review of ‘Strong Son’

In 2020 a short film with the title Strong Son premiered at TIFF. It was only three minutes long, but still touched on themes like toxic masculinity, aging parents, and mental health. Now, writer and director Ian Bawa returns to the festival with his debut feature of the same name, extrapolating on all of these themes.

Harvinder (Mandeep Sodhi) struggles to take care of his aging father, Jagdeep (Amrit Parbhakar). Their relationship was always tenuous, with Jagdeep being vocal to his son about what it means to be a man.  Lift weights, get strong – it leads to popularity, stability and eventually a wife. Harvinder used to be a body builder. Now he uses the gym as a haven to manage his increasing anxiety. Harvinder may be able to lift heavy weights, but the weight of the world on his shoulders seems insurmountable.  

Ian Bawa’s Strong Son is a confident, deeply autobiographical debut that will resonate with millennials navigating their parents’ mortality.  The personal touches here are palpable, right down to the cameo from Bawa’s real-life dog, Diamond.  The writer-director digs deeper into the themes of his short film with the extra 85 minutes, but, it’s not always an easy watch. The slower pace and a tight-lipped protagonist can sometimes keep the audience at a distance. And yet, by the end there’s enough poignancy in Strong Son to forgive and forget the lulls that came before.

Two men flex in front of the camera
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Hillary is a Toronto based writer, though her heart often lives in her former home of London, England. She has loved movies for as long as she can remember, though it was seeing Jurassic Park as a kid that really made it a passion. She has been writing about film since 2010 logging plenty of reviews and interviews since then, especially around festival season. She has previously covered the London Film Festival, TIFF (where she can often be found frantically running between venues) and most recently Sundance (from her couch). She is a member of the Online Association of Female Film Critics. When she’s not watching films or writing about them, she can be found at her day job as a veterinarian. Critic and vet is an odd combination, but it sure is a great conversation starter at an interview or festival!
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