Guest Author - Lorna London Sloukji
Directed by Academy Award Nominee, Frenando Meirelles, Blindness is a film that continuously poses the question, "in a world gone blind, what if you were the only one who could see?"
This hypothetical question becomes a reality when a city mysteriously experiences an epidemic that results in blindness. When blindness overpowers someone, she is taken to an abandoned asylum where criminals victimize the quarantined. Crimes erupt in the asylum as more panic, fear, and chaos saturate the newfound society.
The only person that can see in this tragedy is a doctor's wife, played by Julianne Moore who pretends that she too is blind so that she can remain with her husband, Mark Ruffalo. As she maintains this secret, she plays mother to a group of seven as she leads them out of the asylum and back into the plagued city where hope somehow still lingers.
The film opens with a flash, as one man is immediately struck blind as he's driving home from work. Soon, each person in the city that he comes into contact with suffers the same blindness. Eventually, the blindness spreads and the epidemic floods the city.
Imagine a world where absolute chaos overtakes everything and everyone and you�re the only one that can see. Somehow, you have to lead everyone back into the same city that invoked such misery and fear in your family and friends to hopefully find something that makes it disappear.
Blindness plays on several human virtues, vices, and everything in-between. Although the plot deems itself unrealistic in the literal sense, Moore�s character touches on many obstacles we face every day. In fact, Blindness reveals characters that experience much of the same panic we all face. Moreover, Blindness exposes what can happen when too many economic crises, international turmoil, and horrific crimes occur we simply become blind to what should be done in order to rejuvenate the world.
Exclaim says, �Don McKellar�s script reins in the literary triumph cohesively on a structural level, which itself is no small feat... Blindness is an engaging and interesting watch.�
Blindness made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, just last month.
Based on a novel by Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago, and turned into a screenplay by Don McKellar, Blindness is a film for those who wonder what can happen in a world when we cannot see anymore, and can only rely on hope to reclaim our vision, both literally and fundamentally.
Blindness opens in Canadian theatres on October 3. For theatre locations and screening times visit Festival Cinemas (Vancouver) or Cineplex.
