It’s rather easy to see a mugshot of an accused or convicted criminal in the media and say to yourself “well that guy’s clearly rotten to the core” or some other similar sentiment. It’s almost impossible to be that dismissive when that same person is someone you’ve loved and looked up to for most of your life. Lines become blurred and black-and-white morality gets reduced to shades of grey. Do you stand by the person in an effort to reform their behaviour or do you cast them into the firepit of public scorn and prosecution to prevent them from hurting others? The tightly-knit cast of characters in director Koumbie’s sophomore feature face this dilemma head on in Bystanders.
A remote Novas Scotia cabin furnishes the setting as lifelong friends Ayada (Marlee Sansom), Lily (Deborah Castrilli), Zeke (Cavell Holland), Kyle (Peter Sarty), and Sophia (Katelyn McCulloch) gather for a weekend of partying and letting loose with newly-minted couple Ayade and Zeke looking forward to some more intimate time together.
The weekend is given an extra jolt by the unexpected arrival of Jake (co-writer Taylor Olson) who has brought drugs, alcohol, and a touch of drama as he is Ayada’s ex and the flame between them hasn’t completely gone out yet. Things are light and cordial at first, but ratcheting tension over their mutual feelings for Ayda causes Zeke to reveal that Justin is under investigation at their medical school over alleged sexual misconduct.
After admitting that he had intercourse with a fellow student even though told repeatedly to stop, Justin attempts to excuse his actions by noting they were both intoxicated. The group of friends is almost immediately fractured. Sophia is convinced that Justin is a dangerous rapist who needs to be outed, Kyle can’t believe that his older brother is truly capable of such an act, Lily thinks Justin needs help to reform, Zeke feels guilt over whether he should have come forward sooner and Ayda tries her best to stay neutral.
But circumstances, including their inconvenient isolation, won’t allow these friends to take the easy way out, forcing them to confront the elephant in the room before an already tense situation blows up for the worse.
Director Koumbie takes her time setting up the dominoes here, carefully crafting the individual characters and their relationships before detonating the plot bomb that propels the remainder of the tight 81 minute runtime.
Her young cast is more than up to the challenge, each seamlessly inhabiting their screen counterparts with aplomb. Co-writer Olson is particularly striking as a charismatic alpha male struggling to reckon with a previously unacknowledged dark side. Sansom nearly matches him in a subtle performance of a young woman struggling with remaining neutral in a conflict where she has more skin in the game than she’s willing to recognize.
The tense subject matter is also handled with commendable maturity and restraint, never delvoling into a live-action Twitter war of public opinion that seems to be the 21st century default response to controversial topics. These characters can’t hide behind screens and must literally face the matter head-on.
Bystanders succeeds with flying colours as a modern chamber drama for the Zillennial age, putting both its characters and its audience through an emotional wringer. Any film that can force its audiences to re-examine its own concepts of friendship and personal biases is worth highly recommending.
8.5/10
Bystanders screens on Friday April 21 @ Cineplex Park Lane in Halifax