Sharon and her ten-year old son Bayo reside in the small settlement of Tickle Cove, located on the shores of Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland. Their family has lived there for multiplegenerations. But, Sharon despises her small town life that she has there. It is Sharon's dream to move to Toronto so she can forge a new start, which would provide her and Bayo with a better life. Sharon is inspired to move to Toronto because it was where her deceased mother was born. She leaves her large suitcase trunk that is full of clothes in the centre of the foyer in her house. This is a symbolic gesture signalling that the move will soon become a reality. Sharon hates her father, Phillip Longlan, as much as living in Tickle Cove because he forced her and her mother to live there. Phillip subjected them to a life there so he could pursue his passion. Phillip is a fisherman who spends most of his time on a commercial fishing vessel. He supports Sharon by providing her with enough money to survive, but not enough that would allow her to follow through on her dream of leaving. However, Bayo does not want to leave, especially since he would leave his grandfather behind. Bayo loves the sea and wants to spend his entire life by the water. Bayo never met his father, who lived and died by the sea. Phillip tells Bayo various stories about sailing, which gives Bayo the fantasy of rowing across the Atlantic Ocean to Portugal. When Phillip visits Bayo and Sharon, Bayo begs his grandfather not to give his mother enough money that would provide them with the opportunity to move to Toronto. As Phillip grows older he ponders his immediate future and the implications of Bayo learning more about his father.
The film was adapted from the novel Lightly by Nova Scotia author Chipman Hall. The sole novel published by Hall, who was otherwise employed as a journalist, Lightly was largely out of print by the time of the film's release, and was later republished by the New Canadian Library series under the Bayo title.
Release
Bayo had a limited theatrical release on April 25, 1985 in Newfoundland. It was released at the Avalon Mall in St. John's, Gander, and Corner Brook. It was also released to a wider audience on television through the CBC. Sixtmonths later, the film was released during the fall of 1985.
Streaming
In Jan 2020 the film was released online on the Canada Media Fund’s Encore+ YouTube channel.
Critical response
The film has received positive reviews from critics. On IMDb, the Internet Movie Database, the film has a rating of 6.9 out of 10 based on a weighted average of 38 reviews. Users on this website have called Bayo an "entertaining and refreshing tale", while praising the film's acting and the music by Loreena McKennitt. In Jan Teag's positive review for Cinema Canada, he called Bayo a special film. Noting that Ransen "shied away from the Hollywood gloss that would have destroyed it and has achieved an uncommon ability to make the viewer both joyfully and painfully conscious of their own humanity, that element which is the only true universal".
