The Apple of Our Eyes

A portrait of a blind couple raising a small boy with hardly any help from the outside world. Early on in the film, mother Kati tells us that people who can see sometimes ask, although uncalled for in her opinion, "Why do two blind people need a baby?" Over a period of two years, the film shows how these two parents, Gyozo and Kati, raise their son, and the influence that their handicap has on every-day tasks such as cleaning the house, shopping, changing diapers or going for a walk in the neighbourhood. Before being able to leave the house, the toddler needs to be wearing his shoes; unable to see the shoes, the father uses his son's eyes to find them. "Give me your shoes, in my hands," he says. The camera documents these events, often prosaically, from up close. They talk about raising their son, their relationship and their visual handicap. Besides portraying the family as a whole, the film also follows the members individually: the father assembling pens in a factory, the mother before and during her performance as a singer, and the child finding his way around the house and escaping the close "watch" of his parents.