The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences loves to reward actors for playing a character with a physical or mental disability. However, they tend to only award Oscars to those who are either drowning or thriving in their adversity. In Eskil Vogt’s film Blind, Ellen Dorrit Petersen plays a woman who is still coming to terms with her recent blindness. She’ll get no Oscars for her efforts, but it’s a more honest and impressive performance than all the best actor nominees put together.
Following the loss of her eyesight, Ingrid (Ellen Dorrit Petersen) retreats into herself, ensconces herself in a new apartment. She lives there with her architect husband, Morten (Henrik Rafaelsen), but never leaves it herself. Stuck inside her own head, she channels her anxieties and fantasies into writing a story about what her husband; transplanting her frustrations into other character (Elin (Vera Vitali) and Einar (Marius Kolbenstvedt) ). As her anxieties about childlessness and her husband’s fidelity grow, Ingrid threatens to drive him away with her isolationism.
Blind is a fascinating film which explores the inner fear and anxieties of loneliness, isolation and dealing with the loss of a sense. Ingrid projects her sexual fantasies and desires onto the characters in her story, frustrated by Morten’s boringness. Ellen Dorritt Peterson is absolutely mesmerising, especially when she’s doing nothing. It’s easy to tackle the subject of blindness through over-acting or melodrama, but Blind tackles it through the standpoint of isolation and loss.
https://vimeo.com/105574176
Blind is out in cinemas now.
