2 out of 5

Directed by: Joyce A. Nashawati

Once again, I’m supposing my lack of awareness of the world outside of my video games and comics is preventing me from getting the full scope of something, but even with some backing to place Blind Sun’s politics, I’m not sure it would make it shape up into a better movie, per se, just on that has more of a reason to exist.

As is, it’s pretty bare, though appreciably not boring.  Ashraf (Ziad Bakri), a visitor to Greece, is hired by a rich couple to take care of their villa while they vacation in
Paris.  He’s accosted on the way there by a policeman, hostile toward him for being a foreigner, and radio bleeps and a focus on the sun let us know that we’re in a setting in which water is getting scarcer by the day; that the couple’s villa has a pool is a pretty big deal, and Ashraf settles in to AC and showers and dozing on the couch for what seems like a pretty easy-going job.

The water cuts out; he travels out to repair it.  The sun bakes his brain, giving him blurred vision and a headache, and soon after – between bouts of the water continuing to cut out – he starts seeing shadows dart around the house.  Things seem to move around when he’s sleeping.  And tensions in the world beyond the villa are getting worse; a company has taken over rationing out the water.

And… that’s about it.  Director Joyce A. Nashawati makes good use of a small cast, one or two sets, and a minimal budget to effect a good feeling of creepiness, but the film sort of stalls on its concept of haves vs. have nots, and there’s an obvious desire to stay far from stating any obvious intentions, so the whole thing is played very low key.  Unfortunately, this makes any sense of stakes difficult to build up, and also leaves Ashraf without much of an identity, to the extent that it’s hard to care whether or not his visions are real, or for what danger they might pose.

Blind Sun continues to keep Ashraf moving, darting between leering looks in the city and fussing with things around the house, but the movie’s refusal to actually turn the page and say or do something make it, ultimately, a pretty empty viewing.