The blind man who didn’t want to
see Titanic ★★★
DRAMA (2021)
Directed by: Temu Niki
Interpretations: Petri Poikolanen, Marianna Maiala
“Watching a movie, you have to trust your ears – can you trust people if you can’t see their faces?”
From Finland’s always interesting cinema comes this week a bittersweet film, a hymn to the will to live and dignity. Yako suffers from multiple sclerosis, as a result of which he is confined to a wheelchair, and now he has also lost his sight. However, through the Internet he meets Shirpa, also a patient, and they communicate by phone daily, as they live at a great distance from each other. However, one day Yako decides to overcome this distance, and even unaccompanied, in order to finally meet his beloved. On the way, of course, he will need the help of strangers, and somewhere there things will take a dangerous turn.
Finnish director Temu Niki takes a completely unique cinematic approach to give us, as far as possible, the perspective of a blind man who at the same time has severe mobility problems. What we actually see is mostly Yako’s face and his special mobile phone that he uses to communicate with the world. All the rest of the environment is a blur, a world that is now undefined and therefore threatening the hero.
The latter is played – although the verb may not be the same – by Petri Poikolanen, an actor who himself suffers from exactly the same disease. “It was clear from the beginning of the project that the film would not be a documentary about a non-combat actor. I wanted to work with Petri, an actor who turned out to be blind and confined to a wheelchair. As a storyteller, I am obsessed with finding new angles. With the help of Petri, I found the point of view of the blind and the disabled […] the world surrounding the protagonist is blurry and soft, his face and hands are the backdrop of the film. When watching a movie, you have to trust your ears – can you trust people if you can’t see their faces? the director says.
This and other similar questions arise in the film, which still has a few cinephile references, but also humor. After all, the hero is really one of those few who have never seen the Titanic, while he is also a fanatical fan of John Carpenter …
Source: Kathimerini
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