Blindness (2008)

An adaptation of José Saramago's dystopian novel that viscerally portrays the collapse of civilization in the face of an epidemic of blindness. The film does not shy away from any horror: systematic rapes, sexual slavery, brutal murders, and the total degradation of social order. The scenes of sexual violence are explicit and prolonged — groups of blind men force women into prostitution in exchange for food. Fernando Meirelles' direction does not aestheticize cruelty, nor does it attenuate it: it shows it with stark realism. The sole counterbalance is the character of the wife who retains her sight and protects her husband with heroic sacrifice, but this core of loyalty is crushed by the tide of horror that dominates the narrative. The underlying thesis is Saramago's: a profoundly pessimistic vision of what remains of the human being when law is removed. There is no woke agenda, but neither is there genuine hope nor redemption. It is auteur cinema with philosophical intent, not entertainment. Due to explicit sexual violence, systematic cruelty, and disturbing images, it falls outside of all family consideration.