As he puts it himself, Larry Lewis is ‘your true to life blind drunk’. Blind since birth, he has recently started trying to stop drinking. In his attempts to rebuild a normal life, he becomes fascinated by the Japanese art of self defence known as jiujitsu. He soon makes friends with Darren, his jiujitsu teacher.
Up to that point, the story of Aardvark is based on the real life of the protagonist Lewis, an acquaintance of young Japanese-American director Kitao Sakurai. But this unusual docudrama soon starts shifting towards pure fiction. A seductive girl turns up, along with a shady criminal client and a murder. Sakurai links realism to film noir, and American revenge drama to Eastern explosiveness.
A strikingly poetic, hybrid film is the result, with a protagonist who easily attracts all the attention. Just like Zatoichi, the legendary blind Japanese sword fighter, Larry Lewis is not easily defeated: ‘Never underestimate a blind guy.’
Film details
- Countries of production
- Argentina, USA
- Year
- 2010
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2011
- Length
- 80'
- Medium/Format
- HDcam
