Somewhere between Montreal and Mongolia, Namibia and Nepal, Egypt and Ecuador, “Blink” reaches a transcendent state of grace.
The documentary about a family on a year-long world tour could have been an optimistic but superficial travelogue; It could also have been a heavy-handed tearjerker, given the adversity they face. Instead, directors Daniel Roher and Edmund Stinson wisely allow the innate drama of this journey to surface amid the recognizable rhythms of daily life.
Roher, winner of the Oscar for best documentary feature for 2022’s “Navalny,” focuses this time on a different kind of brave clan navigating an uncertain future. Edith Lemay and Sébastien Pelletier are parents of four children: Mia, who was 11 years old at the beginning of the film; Leon, 9; Colin, 6 years old; and Laurent, 4 years old. Three of the four (Mia, Colin and Laurent) have retinitis pigmentosa, a rare and incurable disease that eventually leads to total blindness. The first images of their Montreal home reveal the hustle and bustle of daily life: “When you have four kids, you accept chaos,” Edith says matter-of-factly between loads of laundry, but we also follow the family to appointments with the doctor. for eye exams that don’t bring good news.
Parents decide, with poetic foresight, to fill their children’s brains with as many memories as possible so that when they finally lose their vision, they can hold on to what they have seen. They make a list of destinations and activities they’ve always dreamed of experiencing and then travel around the world to check off as many as possible. These range from the mundane (eating ice cream) to the adventurous (going on safari) to the universal (making friends in other countries). There is palpable excitement in this process, tinged with an undercurrent of melancholy.
We often see things at children’s eye level, whether trudging through the mud of an Amazon rainforest or traversing majestic trails in the Himalayas. Edith and Sébastien – and the film – ask these young people a lot of questions, and they always rise to the challenge, which should be a lesson to overly cautious lawnmower parents everywhere. But cinematographer Jean-Sébastien Francoeur also strives to show us the big picture of what’s wonderful about your trip: a brilliant desert sunset or the vibrant colors of hot air balloons floating in the morning sky.
Along the way, the Pelletier children argue with each other as all siblings do. They complain about being cold, tired, or hungry, as all children do during the holidays. But they also get nervous when night falls and their vision becomes obscured in the dark, turning a fun game of soccer into a more stressful task. Their fear is particularly acute in Ecuador when the family is trapped midair in a gondola for more than nine hours, a situation that would be terrifying for anyone.
Part of the purpose of this trip is to lay the groundwork for these children to learn to make friends wherever they go, despite their disability, which we see repeatedly in simply mobile ways. Colin cries when he has to say goodbye to a sweet dog named Bella, whom the family meets while hiking in Nepal, a heartbreaking moment for its understatement.
That’s what’s often most effective about “Blink”: the examples of fundamental humanity we see in these kids as they forge their path through the world. If you’re wondering how the family can afford to take a year off to pursue something so educational and globe-trotting, Sébastien briefly explains that he made money from his shares when the company he worked for was sold. Additionally, their goal was to travel on $200 a day, often staying in hostels and with families, which gave them more opportunities to immerse themselves in their communities and meet regular people.
It would have been nice to know a little more about the parents before their trip and know where they came from to undertake such an ambitious quest. But the way they interact with their children (and with each other in rare moments of sincere quiet) says a lot about their wit and their heart.