This documentary is an affront to victims of bullying and the following explains why: The filmmaker himself is the bully from the past, which would still be okay if he approached the matter in a self-reflective manner. But he doesn't do that, instead he draws an explanation for his actions that could hardly be cheaper and more mendacious. Because towards the end of the short documentary he explains that he does not contact the victim of bullying, as allegedly originally wanted, and ask for an interview, but rather writes a letter. The reason is that he does not want to bring people into a new forced situation and did not want to end up clichéd with the strength of those who lead a successful life despite being bullied. In truth, however, he does not find out what consequences his bullying had on the victim. His letter is the height of spiritual poverty. There he justifies his actions with the pain he had in himself because his brother died in the fourth grade. This pain specifically made him bully and torment this other boy. His reading of these events is that everyone carries pain within themselves and that then connects everyone - including him and his victim of bullying. This is outrageous and rightly provokes anger for viewers. Because it would even be possible that the bullied person also experienced pain from a loss, just not bullying others because of it. The emotional pain of both is just not comparable, because the bully reduces the pain of the bullied to what he did to him. What the bully did, however, he supposedly did out of an equal pain ... and, in the opinion of the poor filmmaker, that connects the two. Aha. In fact, the bully seems to be looking for an excuse for himself. Today, as a grown man, he prefers to talk about his pain and he does this by not only comparing his pain with the pain of his victim, but even equating it. It's disgusting and so weak that looking at it doesn't squeeze your tear gland, but instead the food comes up again.
Review of When We Were Bullies
