With “Out Standing,” director Mélanie Charbonneau tackles a story that feels both deeply personal and urgently political. Based on Sandra Perron’s 2017 memoir “Out Standing in the Field,” the film traces her groundbreaking yet grueling path as Canada’s first woman infantry officer and the heavy toll that came with it.
Nina Kiri delivers a commanding performance as Perron, capturing both her steely determination and the vulnerability she often kept hidden. Raised in a military family, Perron seemed destined to serve, but what awaited her wasn’t just the punishing physical demands of the Royal 22e Régiment. Instead, it was a culture steeped in institutional sexism where abuse was ignored, harassment was shrugged off, and “progress” was often little more than a slogan.
Charbonneau doesn’t settle for easy answers or simple villains. The film’s most powerful sequence revolves around a controversial training photo, a disturbing image that sparks a firestorm once Perron leaves the military. On the surface it looks damning, but the film skillfully complicates what we think we know by exploring Perron’s fraught relationship with her commanding officer Captain Pritchett (Vincent Leclerc). Was it cruelty, twisted mentorship, or something in between? That ambiguity is part of what makes the film so compelling.
Beyond its critique of the military, the film asks bigger questions. What does courage really look like? Is staying silent a form of survival or complicity? And when institutions resist change, is it braver to keep fighting inside or to walk away and speak out? These questions echo loudly in the #MeToo era, reminding us how many women once felt (and often still feel) trapped in systems stacked against them.
As a film, “Out Standing” balances grit with empathy. It doesn’t just expose a toxic culture, it gives Perron her due as a trailblazer who endured more than most of us could imagine. It’s not always easy to watch, but it’s absolutely worth it as a portrait of one woman’s resilience and as a call to keep pushing for change.
By: Louisa Moore
Screen Zealots 