20/05/2008

Juraj Lehotsky’s Blind Loves [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is the only Slovakian film selected at Cannes and is the first film from Slovakia to screen in the Directors’ Fortnight for 37 years. Incidentally, it is the only documentary (of sorts) in this section.

Depicting the daily life of a blind couple, the film plays on the blurred boundaries between reality and fiction, in particular through a burlesque and poetic sequence in which the husband, Peter, escapes into an animated realm, engulfed by an aquatic world full of submarines and giant octopuses.

Lehotsky positions his camera at the level of the men and women in order to try and capture the sensations of those who can’t see. With an approach that borders on voyeurism – how do you go about recording scenes from the private life of blind people? would the couple in question be so open if they could see the images? – the film’s subtle humour, however, prevents it from lapsing into misplaced sentimentality.

On this subject, the director cites moments of “sweet absurdity”, such as when Peter listens to a ski jumping competition on the television and tries to judge the performances of the jumpers according to the time it takes them to land.

The film invites able-sighted viewers into the inner world of its blind protagonists, through the prism of the love and dynamics of this couple. In four scenes, each dedicated to a different season of love, we also sense a veiled anxiety, as if beyond the subject of love this is also a denial of loneliness.

Blind Loves is the debut feature-length film by a director experienced in documentary filmmaking. Lehotsky has also won acclaim for his music videos and advertisements.

Produced by Artileria and Marko Skop (who is attending Cannes as a Producer on the Move), the film is set to do the rounds of numerous festivals, starting with Karlovy Vary.

(Translated from French)