Blind

Haunting and enigmatic, Blind is a blur of reality and fantasy revolving around a woman who recently lost her eyesight and now refuses to leave her apartment. In this debut feature by Norwegian director Eskil Vogt, Ingrid (Ellen Dorrit Pettersen), a retired schoolteacher, spends her days sitting alone by a window, seemingly awaiting the return from work of her architect husband, Morten (Henrik Rafaelsen). The viewer gets glimpses of Ingrid's restless imagination during scenes in which Morten appears to have slipped into their home unnoticed and is clandestinely watching her—actions that prove to be projections of Ingrid's own strange blend of paranoia and delight. Other clues surface that Ingrid has become a combined voyeur and provocateur in her mind's eye, taking on a storyteller role that gives her an illusory sense of God-like authority over a fictional world. None of this is apparent at first, but eventually certain events, such as the sudden switching of a child's gender, suggests that much of what is being seen is subject to Ingrid's whims. That also goes for the film's other major characters, including a divorced mom who might be having an affair with Morten, and an old friend of Morten's who is a socially isolated Peeping Tom. Vogt skillfully weaves all of this together into a growing mystery about different types of “seeing” in this challenging film, which does contain brief explicit images of downloaded pornographic content. Highly recommended for more adventurous collections. (T. Keogh)