Blindness

An unexplained plague of blindness sweeps through a city, stripping people of their sight and shattering ordinary routines. The Doctor and his Wife are among the first to be quarantined after a patient is found blind, and they quickly become part of a small group trying to survive inside a grim makeshift ward. Resources vanish, rules fracture, and trust becomes a scarce currency as the afflicted band together and negotiate shelter, food, and safety. A Man with a Black Eye Patch keeps to the margins, a Bartender rises as the de facto ruler of Ward Three, and an Accountant tries to tally what remains in a world suddenly erased by darkness. Tension between survival and humanity threads through every choice.

Directed by Fernando Meirelles and adapted from Jose Saramago's novel with screenplay contributions by Don McKellar, Blindness arrived in 2008 as a stark meditation on civilization under siege, mixing intimate human drama with unsettling bureaucratic and social breakdown.

The film did not garner major nominations or wins at the big awards, and it is not widely cited among year end lists. Some critics noted technical ambition, but the project remained outside the mainstream honors circuit. Its audience impact stayed more about discussion than trophy recognition in film.

Despite its grim premise, the movie invites discussion about safety, power, and the fragility of social contracts. Viewers note how close quarters and scarcity reveal both cruelty and compassion, making the film linger as a parable about collective responsibility during crisis and the rough edges of human solidarity in practice.

Critics were divided on tone but often praised the performances by Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo as moral anchors amid chaos, and they debated the film's relentless focus on ethical choices, confinement, and the instincts that surface when order collapses, exposing both resilience and fear in audiences.