Somewhere along the road achieved between Montreal and Mongolia, Namibia and Nepal, Egypt and Ecuador, “Blink” is rendered at its highest level of grace.
A documentary about a family going around the world for a period of one year on tour could have produced an entertaining but “one dimensional” travel documentary; it also could have been a very sentimental movie if the circumstances they went through were focused on too much. Rather, this journey of the second directors Daniel Rocher and Edmund Stinson is interesting in its own right, so they preferred to let the action unfold in the course of normal events.
The Academy Awards honoree for the best documentary feature for 2022’s “Navalny” turns his sights on the family in a different context exposing them to the uncertainties associated with the future. Parents of four children are Edith Lemay and Sébastien Pelletier; these are Mia, who was already 11 during filming; Leo, 9; Colin, 6 and Laurent, 4. Laurent, Colin and Mia form three of the four; were diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa which is a rare genetic disorder and currently has no known cure. A glimpse of their house in Montreal gives a sense of normal life “When you have 4 kids, you expect being a little crazy,” Edith remarks matter of fatly while changing the clothes but on the other side of the coin, we have their eye doctors appointments where they gather no positive news.
It is the ideal situation parents find themselves in as before their kids get older and lose their sight, they decide it best to take advantage of time by exposing them to as much as possible.
Literally the last thing we want to be doing is shoveling snow, but they certainly check it off their bucket list. To escape the monotony (or ruggedness) of life, many adopt a crusade mentality. They make a list of places they would wish to see or experiences they would want to have, and pursue it around the globe as if they were following a treasure map. Often what began as a simple checklist manifests to the extremes of frustration or adventure, whether it is mundane such as consuming ice cream, or having an outlandish experience such as going on a safari, or simply wishing to socialize with new people in a completely different place. It makes one feel pure joy and a sense of tinged bitterness at the same time.
More often than not, we perspective at the level of kids, which makes sense considering the Pellets walk through the spectacular high mountain ranges or the thick jungles of tropical rainforests. Edith and Sébastien and also Nadine seem like a lot to ask from these young persons, which is exactly what they do all the time so certainly a lesson in what they refer to as ‘snowplow’ parenting. Jean Sébastien Francoeur the cinematographer also zooms out to remind us about the captivating views of their scale a desert sunset or colored hot air balloons in a morning sky.
There is also some sibling rivalry within them, like every other child. They too moan about being cold, tired, even hungry, ailments that most children seem to have when on holidays.
But they do become apprehensive as their eyesight becomes weak when the sun sets. Such conditions turn an otherwise fun pick up soccer game into a much more serious and stressful undertaking. In Ecuador, for instance, the family becomes very scared because they are stuck in a gondola somewhere mid-air for over nine hours which is quite unnerving for anyone.
Hence this also becomes part of the aim of the journey to prepare these kids to develop the ability to make friends in any place they visit regardless of their disability which we witness movingly again and again in the film. Colin bursts into tears when he has to part with a lovely dog called Bella that the family encounters while trekking in Nepal, which is perhaps one of the most understated yet painful scenes of the film.
Such an event is for instance what in ‘Blink’ is probably the most powerful: The demonstration of basic human traits that these children possess as they go on a journey to discover the world. If you are in doubt how the family managed to travel for such a long period on a shoe string, preciously educational as it is, Sébastien lightheartedly tells that he sold his brand in the company he was working for which earned him a lot of money.
Besides, they wanted to manage on $200 a day, usually spending nights in hostels or with families, which allowed them to engage more with their communities and meet the local people.
In some ways, knowing a little more about the parents earlier on their travels, especially where they came from to embark on such a strenuous journey, would have been beneficial. But then, the manner in which they relate to their children, and between themselves when the situation is relatively quiet, gives an insight into their creativity, and their love.
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