If you saw something bad, what would you do? This is the dilemma our protagonist is faced with when he, a teacher, joins a wedding celebration in a remote Turkish village, only to realise there is a disturbing reality behind the marriage.

We enter a crisp snowy day, feeling joyful as the characters dance and build excitement ahead of a marriage ceremony. But when we enter the dark house, we learn that a young bride is being pushed into a tradition she doesn’t want any part of. Focused on the outsider perspective rather than that of the girl at the centre of it, the teacher represents us watching injustice in these situations, exploring how silence can be just as bad.

Watching, you really feel for this character, played excellently by Efecan Şenolsun. He’s a friend, someone who understands what’s going wrong, but underneath it all digs deep to show how perpetrators aren’t always the people who you assume. He is stable, yet cracks as he learns more from the characters around him, even the echoes across the location, solidifying what he knows.

Written and directed by Emir Kumova, for 14 minutes he keeps the viewer gripped, never certain how the conversation will spiral, how quiet stares between people can communicate so much. We know this story takes place in the present day, but attention to every detail pulls us through centuries of these events taking place, and how our morals are constantly judged in how we act on witnessing the worst.

“Every girl has her own fate.” says a member of the family at one point, yet in both the film and real life, often that fate is left up to people who don’t have her best interests at heart. Every girl deserves to decide what she wants to do with her life, and The Witness carefully explores a dark side of what can happen when she’s not allowed due to people not standing up.

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