The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic

In Teemu Nikki's 2021 Finnish film, Jaakko is blind, paralysed from the chest down by multiple sclerosis, and spends his days on the phone with Sirpa. The two have never met. When he hears her health is failing, he decides to travel to another city alone, which means placing himself in the hands of five strangers along the way. Petri Poikolainen, who plays Jaakko, is himself blind and living with MS; he and Nikki met during military service. The film stays almost entirely on him and holds everything around him out of focus, putting the viewer inside the same shortage of information. It won the audience award in the Orizzonti Extra section at Venice. The tension comes from being dependent on the goodwill of people you cannot see, and it never slides into easy sentiment. Who it's for: viewers drawn to films built on a formal restriction, and to disability handled without pity. Who it's not for: anyone who wants open views and a comfortable watch; the frame is deliberately narrow.