Slepe lásky (Blind Loves) (documentary)

By Elliot V. Kotek (from the 2008 Festival de Cannes) Director: Juraj Lehotský Written by: Marek Lescak, Juraj Lehotský Starring: Peter Kolesar, Iveta Koprdova, Miro Daniel, Zuzka Pohankova In this Slovakian exploration of relationships between blind couples, Lehotsky's camera provides a viewpoint that seems voyeuristic at times. Not in the sexual manner we're used to experiencing in modern movie-making, but in the documentary sense that the viewer is absolutely made to feel that they have been given private access to relationships; the participants physically cannot see us hovering, cannot feel us engaging in some type of cinematic espionage we occasionally feel to be proffered to us at their expense.

As the film opens, one blind couple feels their way through a sparse room. They are functionally free and fantastically bizarre for us to witness, not for the fact of their blindness but for their relativity to the world in which they live, full of color and lensed with superbly crafted care. The photographic composition of the scenes throughout the film, as it moves from one subject to the next, is so complete that each frame could exist as a portrait if it weren't for its existence within the sequential narrative. As a result, the film, in parts and in its entirety, is simply beautiful, and the depiction of the actors, as they stare out unaware of the placement of the camera or the appearance of their unfocused corneas, is often haunting in its honesty.

Lehotsky integrates all of these very real storytelling techniques with an occasional surreal, animated interlude which serves to traverse the cinematic experience and facilitate the film's transcendence to quote unquote "high art." Consequently, the film is freed from the bland-colored boundaries provided by the many fantastically truthful but inherently drab color palates of many of the films currently coming out of Eastern Europe.

Lehotsky's documentary also begs the following investigative query: "If we question the verite of any documentary simply because the presence of a camera might manifest a change in the behavior of the filmmaker's subjects, is it as true when the subjects are sightless and potentially less aware of the medium capturing their moments?" The recipient of the CICAE award at the Festival de Cannes's Directors' Fortnight, Blind Loves will continue to captivate audiences at film festivals worldwide, and is sure to contend for kudos wherever it plays. Photos courtesy of Autlook Films (www.autlookfilms.com)