Blindness is a mature, thoughtful film for adult audiences who believe cinema should address the human condition, no matter how bleak, and not just provide escapism.

Its apocalyptic themes are dark, the images difficult to watch, and yet the experience is ultimately rewarding and even uplifting. The ending suggests that people can create a new and just society, although there is a staggering price.

The story chronicles what happens -- in a harrowing Lord of the Flies manner -- when people are forced into a prison-like quarantine after a contagious virus makes them blind. Outside, authorities slowly withdraw support and conditions inside deteriorate.

Only one "victim" can see -- she feigns blindness to accompany and protect her afflicted husband -- and she becomes a leader of the sane during an inevitable spiral into bedlam.

Blindness works on a universal level with a deliberate attempt to avoid a specific nationality or place (although it was filmed in Canada, Uruguay and Brazil). While it plays mostly in English, the film is meant to be a commentary on all humanity, not on a single political regime or ideology.

The film may also be a harbinger of the future of serious cinema because it is only incidentally connected to Hollywood. Instead, it is an international co-production of Canada, Brazil and Japan; it is helmed by the excellent Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Mereilles (City of God); it was adapted from Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago's searing book by Canadian actor-filmmaker Don McKellar; and the sterling cast is international.

While Americans Julianne Moore (as the sighted woman) and Mark Ruffalo (as her doctor husband) are the headliners, this is a true ensemble, a collaboration. Other key roles are played by Gael Garcia Bernal, Alice Braga, Danny Glover, Maury Chaykin and McKellar (as a weasel offering early comic relief).

Blindness is smart enough, and so beautifully crafted even with the ugliness it depicts, to let us see the truth.

(This film is rated 18-A)

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