Experiencing Interruptions?

Seeing Through the Darkness / Les yeux ne font pas le regard

Carried by an immersive sonic universe, this film offers a sensitive journey through memory, perception, and resistance. It invites us to listen differently to lives transformed by war.

Seeing Through the Darkness follows five people who lost their sight in armed conflicts, gathering fragments of their present-day lives. Through an enveloping sound composition, veiled archival material, footage shot by the protagonists themselves, and a sensitive visual approach, the film explores memory, perception, and our relationship to the visible. Steering away from spectacle, it invites us to hear what often goes unheard, and to feel differently. In an age saturated with images, this documentary offers a sensory experience where listening becomes a gesture of resistance and human reconnection.

  • Simon Plouffe
    Director
  • Simon Plouffe
    Writer
  • Simon Plouffe
    Producer
  • Anja Stupp
    Key Cast
  • Trystan Rodion
    Key Cast
  • Nebojša Bandović
    Key Cast
  • Yukizo Watanabe
    Key Cast
  • Steven Santander
    Key Cast
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Les yeux ne font pas le regard
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 32 minutes 33 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    November 22, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    273,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Germany, Japan, Serbia, Ukraine
  • Language:
    Bosnian, German, Japanese, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Ukrainian
  • Shooting Format:
    4k
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1:85
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • RIDM - Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal
    Montreal
    Canada
    November 22, 2024
    World Premiere
    Magnus-Isacsson Nominee
  • BOGOCINE, Festival de Cine de Bogotá
    Bogota
    Colombia
    November 22, 2025
    Latin America
    Winner Best Social Documentary
  • RIFFA (Regina International Film Festival)
    Regina
    Canada
    August 19, 2025
    Saskatchewan
    Canadian competition
  • Medenine International Film Festival
    Medenine
    Tunisia
    October 26, 2025
    Tunisia Premiere
  • The Extraordinary Film Festival
    Namur
    Belgium
    November 6, 2025
    Belgium Premiere
    Official Comptetition
  • Festival du film international de Baie-Comeau – Cinoche
    Baie-Comeau
    Canada
    January 16, 2026
Distribution Information
  • Les Films du 3 Mars
    Distributor
    Country: Canada
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Simon Plouffe

Simon Plouffe lives and works as a filmmaker in Montreal / Tiohtià:ke / Mooniyang. He studied screenwriting at UQAM and cinema at Concordia University. His film Others’ Gold (2011) was shown at Dok.Fest Munich and Big Sky Film Festival. Those Who Come, Will Hear (2018) won the Jury Award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival and Best Sound at the Gala Québec Cinéma in 2019. His short exploratory documentary Forests (2022) was screened at festivals including Krakow Film Festival, Edinburgh Film Festival, and was featured at the Hong-gah Museum in Taiwan. It won the Art and Experimentation Award at Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma and the Jury Award at Trento, Italy, in 2023. Seeing Through the Darkness (2024) is his latest documentary.

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Director Statement

With this documentary, I'm primarily interested in people who have experienced the loss of sight during war. In an age when we produce banal and ephemeral images, I believe it's important to slow down and listen to those who can inspire us to new ways of conceiving or glimpsing the world.

To get closer to the world of blindness, the stories presented are carried by an immersive sound environment, highlighting the sonic acuity of the characters. The voices of today, embodied and alive, allow us to question, through singular looks, on different themes related to the war, including the loss of identity, injustice, the impulse of life and death. The human being who is at the center of these conflicts must be able to tap into his inner resources in order to pass through this total darkness and find his way to a brighter destiny, which is freedom.