The Power of Darkness

Fernando Vidal, a formerly wealthy man now living in a tiny single room in Buenos Aires, is accosted one evening by someone who claims to be a childhood friend. Vidal denies ever having met him. But later the stranger turns up at his threadbare apartment and begins to ask questions about their childhood together, reminding Fernando about how he would catch birds and poke out their eyes just to see if they could fly without sight. These long suppressed memories start to haunt Fernando and he becomes increasingly detached from reality.
 
From that point on, strange events accumulate in his life. A seemingly drunk neighbour tells him about sighting a huge bird – a warning of disasters to come. Fernando begins to notice blind men everywhere in the city, some even following him through the night-time streets and onto subway trains. Finally his childhood friend tells him that he has discovered a secret society of the blind which is plotting to take over the world. And suddenly Fernando begins to see evidence of this everywhere. Following a series of clues, he climbs the stairs of an old apartment building in a deserted section of the city and finds himself lost in a vast and dark labyrinth where bizarre and terrifying visions flash in and out of view. Somewhere in the void, he is convinced, lays the answer to all his problems. He steps forward, as the darkening shadows swallow him up.
 
Part crazed conspiracy theory, part horror story and part philosophical inquiry, THE POWER OF DARKNESS is a film like no other. Although based on the highly regarded novel, On Heroes and Tombs, the film has been more or less forgotten. This is its first English-friendly release and is a must see for adventurous film watchers.