Search Results for "bystander effect"

Take the next best residential neighbourhood. A man is on the look-out for a victim. Within a couple of minutes, he chooses a young woman. He hunts, stabs and rapes her. As he dwells on his vicious performance of the crime, the residents turn into a dormant audience while they stand by and watch the rapist’s captivating show.

In a stark and unsettling exploration of societal apathy, the film serves as a chilling metaphor for the detachment of contemporary society. As parallel narratives unfold, the movie forces viewers to confront the consequences of their own indifference to human suffering in a world where brutality and inaction blur the boundaries between the outside world and our own lives.

An ordinary man witnesses a cruel murder and becomes entangled in circumstances out of his control.

On a March night in 1964, 37 neighbors in Queens, New York, witness the brutal murder of Kitty Genovese. None of them takes action or calls the police. 37 tells the story of a few of these people and what led up to the night when they unexplainably remained passive observers. The film is a convincing portrayal of a borough in change and a time characterized by racism, the Civil Rights Movement and political shifts. The actual event that inspired the film’s plot has been called a symbol for the moment when America lost its innocence. The director Puk Grasten skillfully weaves into her feature film debut various fates, dreams and family conflicts by leading us through an apartment building that comes to bear a collective failure.