A man with no previous record grabbed a knife and mangled a complete stranger in a Wal-Mart for no reason. He was tried and found not criminally responsible due to obvious mental problems, spending the next 12 years in a mental institution. This isn’t Hollywood movie magic, this really happened. Now he’s about to be released and his victim is terrified he’s going to come back to finish the job.

Sean Clifton is a paranoid schizophrenic with obsessive compulsive disorder who did something absolutely horrifying to Julie Bouvier, a complete stranger. But the question is, how should he be treated? He clearly was not in control and actually approached a hospital for help on the night of the attack, but was turned away. His victim and her family are (understandably) terrified of his release and possible return, but at the same time he has been cleared and is being monitored by healthcare professionals. As the documentary unfolds, we get a very balanced look at both sides of the coin. Director and four time Emmy winner John Kastner is objective and sensitive to both parties throughout. It would have been easy to paint Clifden as some sort of monster, but Kastner sidesteps that using interviews with mental health professionals and police investigating the crime, along with extensive archival material of Clifden’s stay in the institution to give us a fascinating insight into the debate on victim rights and the rights of the mentally ill from the perspective of both sides.

Once more, there are no easy answers, and Kastner does a great job offering two alternate perspectives and making them both balanced. Powerful stuff.

If you weren’t lucky enough to catch it at Hot Docs earlier this year, check out the edited version on CBC on October 17th or the full version on October 20th.

Donal O’connor