IFFI-2008 - International Film Festival of India

COMPETITION
CINEMA OF THE WORLD
IFFI-2008
Brazil-Canada-Japan
Blindness
2008, 35 mm, Colour, 120 mins, English
Director
Fernando Meirelles
Screenplay
Don McKellar
Cinematography
César Charlone
Editor
Daniel Rezende
Music
Uakti (Marco Antônio Guimarães)
Cast
Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Gael Garcia Bernal, Danny
Glover, Alice Braga
Production Design
Matthew Davies, Tulé Peak
Art
Joshu de Cartier
Sound
Guiherme Ayrosa
Costumes
Renée April
Production
Bee Vine Pictures; O2 Films; Pot Boiler Films
Festivals
Cannes, Sarajevo, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Toronto,
Atlantic Film Festival-Canada, Helsinki
An adaptation of the 1995 novel of the same name by Nobel Prize winning Portuguese
writer José Saramago about a society suffering an epidemic of blindness. The novel's
author originally refused to sell rights for a film adaptation, not wanting it to fall into the
wrong hands. Meirelles was able to acquire rights with the condition that the film would
be set in an unrecognisable city. Premiered as the opening film at the Cannes Film
Festival this year, it follows a handful of people as they try to survive hunger in a
government makeshift prison. The book focused on a group of the afflicted who are
drawn together and, with the government baffled by the problem, sent away to an asylum
and placed under heavy guard. More and more inmates arrive until it becomes apparent
that the epidemic has swept the world. The whole planet has gone blind, with one
exception: a doctor and his wife who has retained her sight, guiding the unnamed
characters during their confinement and leading their escape into the chaos of the world
outside, where gangs of sightless children attack sightless old men, and dogs savage the
bodies of the dead and dying. The film incidentally has been strongly some organisations
representing the blind community
Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles was nominated for an Academy Award for Best
Director in 2004 for his work in City of God, He was also nominated for the Golden
Globe Best Director award in 2005 for The Constant Gardener. Meirelles studied at the
School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of São Paulo during the
1980s. His graduation work was done in the form of a film, instead of the traditional
designs of the other students: he went to Japan and bought professional video equipment
to do the job. He presented it and graduated with the minimum acceptable grade. After
several years in independent television, he became an advertisement film director. He is
still one of the partners of O2 Filmes, the biggest Brazilian advertisement firm, which
has also produced City of God, Domésticas (Maids) and Viva Voz.
30