Directed by the
Brazilian Fernando Meirelles, José Saramago’s Seeing surprises us with the scenes of terror and
subversion.
Throughout the film we are transported to a crazy but quite possible world, as "chaos" coexists "in the world and in people''s minds," there is no distinction of race, colour, sex or social class.
The film shows an epidemic called "white blindness" which is unfounded and infects an Oriental man whilst stuck in the chaotic traffic of Sao Paulo and from there, several other people become contaminated. The infected people are placed in quarantine in appalling conditions, that part of the film is rather gruesome. In the middle of all this, there is a woman, Julianne Moore, the wife of the ophthalmologist, who helps all the infected patients without them knowing that she herself has not been infected.
The film shows a contrast, the attempt to maintain dignity and the instinct of survival.
Cast: Julianne Moore, Gael García Bernal, Alice Braga, among others.
It is worth “seeing”.