Victory over Darkness

The wartime work of St Dunstan’s Home for the Blind, elegantly and effectively told.

This film about the wartime work of St Dunstan’s Home for the Blind – specifically, the assistance it offers recently blinded servicemen – is simple, informative and effective. Underrated filmmaker Max Anderson (working at the Realist Film Unit, a leading company within the British documentary movement) delivers a sensitive, economical documentary that largely avoids either sensationalising its treatment or patronising its subjects.

Anderson’s unobtrusive masterstroke is to have the story told by a blind ex-serviceman, his unpolished but calmly assured delivery grounding it in authenticity. This was by no means the obvious move on the part of the filmmakers that it would be today. This government film is a public record, preserved and presented by the BFI National Archive on behalf of The National Archives, home to more than 1,000 years of British history.