Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Through examining Fini Straubinger, an old woman who has been deaf and blind since her teens, and her work on behalf of other deaf-blind people, this film shows how the deaf-blind struggle to understand and accept a world from which they are almost wholly isolated.
Werner Herzog's documentary about deaf-blind individuals, centered on Fini Straubinger, is a profoundly singular work. Its Novelty is genuinely high — Herzog's observational approach to a radically underexplored human condition, rendered with deep empathy and almost philosophical gravity, produces something truly one-of-a-kind in documentary cinema. The film's subject matter and the intimacy with which it is treated give it an unmistakable voice. Cinematography is competent but restrained, suited to the observational mode without being visually ambitious. Acting is not applicable in the traditional sense, but the naturalism of the subjects and Straubinger's remarkable presence elevate the human dimension. The Plot follows a loose, episodic structure that serves the documentary form adequately. The Ending is affecting but not dramatically conclusive, leaving viewers in reflective silence — fitting but not exceptional by itself.