Wrong Side of the Bus (2009)

• 81%
• 2009
• Documentary

What's the price of being a bystander? Sidney Bloch is an internationally recognized professor of psychiatry, loving father, singer and author of books on mental health. He is also a man with a troubled conscience. Sid returns to South Africa from Melbourne for his medical school reunion, determined to resolve his guilt for colluding with Apartheid, that has troubled him for forty years. He's accompanied by his teenage son, Aaron who turns out to be his harshest critic. Aaron narrates the film. In the Apartheid era, Sid had benefited as a 'White', contributed negligibly to the struggle against racism and then left for Israel the day after his medical graduation. A sense of guilt and shame accompanied him throughout his later move to Australia. So how does a man who lost fourteen relatives in the Holocaust become complicit with a racist system? Sid seeks out victims of Apartheid, former colleagues who stayed to make a difference, and political activists such as Judge Albie Sachs, measuring his own stand against theirs. How do they regard him? Could he have acted differently? What were his choices? Aaron critically observes his father's explorations, both supporting and provoking him to move on and at least, forgive himself. The film explores how easy it is to accept injustice and compromise your morals. Though it's easy for any good person to become a bystander, it's not so easy to live with the consequences. WRONG SIDE OF THE BUS is one man's journey to forgiveness.