Blind ***½ (2015, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Henrik Rafaelsen) – Movie Review

Ellen Dorrit Petersen stars as Ingrid who has recently lost her sight and retreats totally to the safety of her home where she feels in control, alone with her husband Morten (Henrik Rafaelsen) and her thoughts.

However, Ingrid’s real problems lie within herself, so soon her thoughts, deepest fears and repressed fantasies begin to take over. Ingrid starts narrating the lives of two other people, Einar, a lonely man who gets his kicks out of porn and seeing women he likes in the streets, and Elin, an equally lonely woman, a divorced single mother whose only company is her daughter. Though they emerge to be characters created by Ingrid, they start to get mixed up with her reality.

Writer-director Eskil Vogt‘s polished and skilled Norwegian drama is teasingly provocative and beautifully realised as Ingrid’s visions and reality become entangled, confusing us but leaving us intrigued and satisfied.

The film starts with Ingrid narrating how difficult or how easy it is to remember objects, first a tree, then dogs, then an apartment. It doesn’t matter whether or not you remember it right, as long as you have a picture of what you remember. she says. From this point, the film never lets go of its strange and potent grip. It’s as haunting as it is satisfying.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com