When word of mouth sweeps over a festival, it often points in an interesting, off-beat direction. The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic (Sokea mies, joka ei halunnut nahda Titanicia), playing in Venice’s Horizons Extra sidebar, is one of these golden tip-offs. Starring Petri Poikolainen as Jaakko, a youthful man who is both blind and unable to walk, it turns into a tense thriller when he decides to visit Sirpa, a woman he has fallen in love with on a chat site.
In his fifth feature film, the self-educated, award-winning Finnish director Teemu Nikki shows huge cool and perspicacity in choosing an actor who is actually blind and suffering from MS. In clumsier hands, the film could have been a very stiff and stilted portrait of a severely disabled person. Instead we are presented with a wonderful personality full of humor and – critical ears raised – a discerning movie collector to boot. The title’s reference to James Cameron’s film Titanic comes from an amusing phone dialogue between Jaakko and Sirpa in which he explains that his admiration for Cameron’s previous films is so great he has never taken the director’s “most calculated and expensive” work out of its cellophane wrapper.
Lensed using a very restricted p.o.v. that largely rests on Jaakko’s expressive face, D.P. Sari Aaltonen’s lighting and camerawork is remarkably effective in conveying a feeling of limitation and uneasiness from the first time we see him waking up in his bed. He has had a recurring dream, almost a nightmare, of running feet, and the first thing he does is tell Sirpa about it. His beaten-up old cell phone is his lifeline to her, to his father, to his housekeeper, and to frequent voice reminders to take his medicine. When he drops it on the floor, he goes through hell getting hold of it again, and falls painfully out of his wheelchair. He can’t lift himself up and has to wait face down on the floor until the housekeeper arrives.
Nikki doesn’t shy away from scenes like this, whose realism far exceeds TV movies. But it also sets the stage for Jaakko’s state of complete helplessness when he falls outdoors later under dire circumstances. Its matter-of-fact realism in depicting and discussing serious illness is actually a relief. Sirpa is also in bad shape; she is frightened by a cancer diagnosis, and her inability to tolerate biopharmaceuticals leaves chemotherapy as her only therapy option. Jaakko’s response to her anxiety is never maudlin or emotional, but respectful words that offer hope. And he promises her they will finally see each other: he will make the three-hour journey to her town by taxi and train. On his own.
If up until this point one watches and listens to Jaakko with awe, amazement and laughter, his journey is edge-of-seat almost from the beginning. The taxi driver leaves him on his own in the train station and he is followed by a strange boy who tries to rob him. His helplessness is highlighted when he falls asleep on the train and wakes up to find his precious phone gone. However, what follows is too brief and inconclusive to turn the story into a bona fide thriller, leaving expectations a little dashed.
Still, in the main role Poikolainen is simply excellent, witty and good-humored, holding attention scene after scene with his courageous decision to leave his home and embark on a journey representing freedom to him. There is a moment when he instructs a taxi driver to roll the windows down and turn the music all the way up, and his joyful shout of “freedom” echoes through the car like a great victory cry. This victory is not canceled or annihilated by the terrible misadventure Jaakko goes through, but is reinforced by his tenacity. The ending is perfect: concise and very moving.
Director, screenplay: Teemu Nikki
Cast: Petri Poikolainen, Marjaana Maijala, Hannamaija Nikander, Matti Onnismaa, Samuli Jaskio, Rami Rusinen
Producers: Teemu Nikki, Jani Poso
Cinematography: Sari Aaltonen..
Editing: Jussi Sandhu
Sound: Sami Kiiski, Heikki Kossi
Production companies: It’s Alive Films, Wacky Tie Films
World sales: Intramovies
Venue: Venice Film Festival (Orizzonti Extra)
In Finnish
82 minutes
