Blink
Between Montreal and Mongolia, Namibia and Nepal, Egypt and Ecuador on the map, a zenith is reached in “Blink”. It feels more mature than the usual travel books which one would think a documentary of a family travelling around the word for one year would be, with such a synopsis and a storyline that dealt with real struggles, it could have easily turned immature, into a sob fest. But it was never meant to be that way, explain Daniel Roher and Edmund Stinson, the film directors, who correctly let the inherent narrative in the relationships and actions of this family slowly come out within the familiar patterns of normal daily life.
A Ukrainian family in turmoil is portrayed in Roher’s previous co-directorial endeavor “Navalny,” who won an Oscar for the Best Documentary Feature of the year 2022. In this particular project though, he decided to focus on a different bravely claiming family. Within the first minutes of watching the film the audience is introduced to its main heroes Edith Lemay and Sébastien Pelletier, four of their children, Mia, Leo, Colin and Laurent, each one of them different ages and sadly three of which were retinitis pigmentosa which slowly and eventually decays the retina making the patient blind. Intercutting early footage, their home life flooded with distance sounds of everyday activity is relatable “When you get to four kids, you accept chaos,” postulates Edith in fastening between washes even as we go with the family to the doctor for regular eye examinations only to find the odds are worsening.
The doctor reports were compromised and parents poetically choose to embark on a crusade with the aim of giving their children as many experiences as they could ‘for one day when they become visually impaired, there is always a way to hold on to the experience of living’.
They create a bucket list of places and things they dream about doing and travel the globe trying to accomplish as many as possible. From the ordinary, such as eating ice cream, to the more daring, like safari hunting, all the way to the more common making friends abroad there is a certain satisfaction to be had. There is definitely a sense of pride in this journey and at the same time a little sadness as well.
We often find ourselves at a child’s perspective during their adventures be it slushing through the puddles of an amazonian jungle or trekking across the stunning terrains of Himalayas. Edith and Sébastien and infact the movie also expect a lot from these young people who seem to defy all odds and are a source of inspiration for overprotective parenting types of parents. However, cinematographer Jean Sébastien Francoeur has the audience look at their impressive travel experiences from a distance as well a hazy sunset over the dunes or a bright sky decorated with many hot air balloons.
As is the case with most siblings, so too do the Pelletier children squabble during their travels. They whine about the cold, the fatigue, and the hunger, just like every child when going away on holiday.
Putting aside a teammate’s risk of kicking the ball out of their own net, the energetic kids do slow down at dusk with 20:39 and the lights out on an impromptu soccer game. Their worry is most acute in Ecuador when the family is locked inside a gondola midair for four hours which is a harrowing experience for anyone.
This is a part of the objective of this excursion, so these children assimilate the skills of making friends wherever they go regardless of the disability, which we see over and over again movingly. Colin while in order to save face cries when the family has to separate from a pet dog Bella when they were in Nepal, a scene that is immensely unfortunate considering how simplistic it is.
What in this case is of quite some goodness or even delight is how individuals see things and they really look like “kids”. Everybody is able to comprehend that the scenario impacted the kids and even now they are young and so very baby-like. If you want to know how the family can go on for this long trip then Sébastien tells you harsh that when his company was sold, he made money selling shares.
Moreover, the interesting aspect is that they had a budget of $200 per day for their trip which involved sometimes staying in hostels or with families and therefore had a greater chance of being engaged in the local culture and meeting ordinary people.
Perhaps getting to know more details about the parents before the trip, such as their backgrounds and what made them pursue such an ambitious journey, would have been nice. But the way these people, parents, deal with their children, and also the way they deal with each other when the chaos subsides and the camera isn’t on, tells a lot more, not only how ingenious they are, but also how loving.
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