Institute History
Description
Tyler joins his friend on a trip to the Catskills for a weekend birthday party with several people he doesn’t know. As soon as they get there, it’s clear that (1) he’s the only black guy, and (2) it’s going to be a weekend of heavy drinking. Although Tyler is welcomed, he can’t help but feel uneasy in “Whitesville.” The combination of all the testosterone and alcohol starts to get out of hand, and Tyler’s precarious situation starts to feel like a nightmare.
Writer/director Sebastián Silva casually conjures an undeniable underlying tension: he puts the viewer on edge and makes them fear an almost imperceptible threat. With Silva’s signature handheld style probing subtext and body language, TYREL is a lot to unpack. Silva has had five films previously shown at the Sundance Film Festival, but this is his first time in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, and it marks his most radical character exploration yet—a timely, provocative, and brilliant observation of the idea of otherness in today’s American climate.