Description
Commissioned by UN Women, Bystander is a tense, intimate short film exploring the split second where instinct, fear and responsibility collide.
Across a series of everyday settings - a bus stop late at night, a locker room after a match, an online gaming session, an open-plan office - we witness subtle but recognisable moments of harassment and boundary-crossing behaviour directed towards women. Nothing heightened. Nothing dramatised beyond reality. Just the familiar discomfort of something not quite right.
Each character faces the same internal question: intervene, or stay silent?
Told through restrained performances, tightening frames and immersive sound design, the film places the audience inside the pause before action, where rationalisation and conscience wrestle for control.
Rather than judging its characters, Bystander examines the psychology of inaction in the face of harassment and abuse towards women and the quiet realisation that silence, too, has consequences.
This professional campaign titled 'BYSTANDER' was published in United Kingdom in August, 2026. It was created for the brand: UN Women UK, by ad agency: Media Trust. This Film medium campaign is related to the Education and Public Interest industries and contains 1 media asset. It was submitted about 4 hours ago.
Credits
Cast (in order of appearance)
Man at Bus Stop: Eben Figueiredo
Man in Pub: Mark Akintimehin
Gamer: Kaine Davis
Man in Office: Timothy Bentinck
Team Mate: Matthew Lloyd
Woman: Maria Manuel
Stranger: Lewis Santer
Bus Driver: Ashley Jeremiah
Supporting Artists: Max Moreland, Noah Upton, Harry Spain, Connor Laslett, Ieva Petrav and Eno Mfon.
Production Credits
Client: UN Women UK
Agency: Media Trust
Production Company: The Banquet
Producer: Adham Hunt
Writer: Eno Mfon
Director: Ian Roderick Gray
Executive Producers: Evie Wright, Ian Roderick Gray and Adham Hunt
Coordinator: Lauren Taverner
Head of MT Films: Celia Taylor
First Assistant Director: Lexy Mill
Cinematographer: Beatriz Delgado Mena
Focus Puller: Gabriel Jones
2nd AC: Jessica Timbs
Camera Trainee: Taco
Key Grip: Matty MacCabe
Grip: Joshua Bull
Digital Imaging Technician: Alistair Holloway
Sound Recordist: Grant Studart
Sound Trainee: Damilola Alokolaro
Gaffer: Hayden Jones
Spark: Sebastian Xander
Trainee Sparks: T. Humberstone and Florence Winter-Taylor
Production Designer: Ieva Petrav
Assistant Art Department: Ana Filipa Galvão Pinho
Head of Hair & Makeup: Emily Bliss
Head of Wardrobe: Lucy Williams
Runners: Sophie Bell and Ritik Mishra
Catering: Alec Tomasso (The Weeping Chef / Firepit Sandwich Co.)
Post-Production
Editor: Liz Deegan — Whitehouse Post
Visual Effects: Tim Mellem — Bubble TV
Office reflections VFX: - Noah Kayma
Composer: Yumi Mashiki
Sound Design: Edwin Matthews
Grade & Online: Karol Cybulski — Harbor Picture Company
Special Thanks
UN Women UK: Tabitha Morton, Pip Christie and Kim Rowell
Silvertown Studios: Michal Kyschky
Focus Canning
SHL Lighting: Jack McAuley
Feral Grips: Andy Sauer
We Love Hue: Alix Milan
Sunbelt Rentals: Jason Heritage
Whitehouse Post: Ella Sedgewick
Bubble TV: Sam Phinikas and Farai Brandon Mbudaya
Harbor Picture Company: Sarah Banks
Arriva Bus UK: Yasmin Bishop, Head of Site Operations
