Sofia is a blind pianist who lives alone in a London apartment. She hears her neighbor Veronique fall to her death and hides what she knows from the police. A hidden USB drive pulls Sofia into the world of Radic, a Serbian crime boss accused of war crimes. Men who work for Radic chase her while Marc, a dangerous hitman, sometimes protects her. Sharp sounds, dark rooms, sex, violence, and many twists create a tense but messy thriller.
The film gives its main story to a flawed woman who plans revenge, lies about her past, and refuses to stay a helpless victim. Sofia is later revealed to be Balma, a war survivor who took her dead sister's name and pretended to be blind. The story treats her secret plan, sexual choices, and escape from punishment as signs of a female lead who can control her own fate. Marc rescues her several times, so the film does not make her fully dominant or make every man useless. The identity message is clear but stays inside a violent crime story instead of turning into a speech about modern politics.
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Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for In Darkness.
Woke representation / casting
The lead role is a blind Bosnian war survivor who lives in London, but sighted English actor Natalie Dormer plays her. The story also gives major power roles to women such as Sofia and Alexandra. The film does not present this choice as a diversity campaign, and most of the cast fits a British crime thriller. The visible mismatch is limited to the central role, so the casting signal is mild.
24%
Woke political dialogue
Not present. The story does not use modern identity or activist lines in its dialogue. The spoken lines focus on murder, family trauma, the Bosnian War, and criminal deals.
0%
Identity-driven story themes
The film makes a woman the central driver of a revenge story. Sofia hides her true name, fakes blindness, investigates dangerous men, and plans revenge for her family. The story treats her sexual choices and escape from punishment as signs of a female lead who can control her own fate. Marc rescues her several times, so the film does not make her fully dominant or make every man useless. This repeated focus makes female empowerment and rejection of the helpless-woman role an important theme.
45%
Western institutional / cultural critique
Not present. The film shows a war criminal, police work, and violent crime. It does not turn those events into a modern attack on Western institutions, capitalism, religion, or traditional family life.
0%
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. The film is an original thriller with fictional characters. It does not change a known character, source story, or real historical figure.
0%
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
One Letterboxd review says the film used a sighted actor in a blind role to win favor with a “woke” acting community. The same review calls the result ableist and rejects the film as an identity-driven choice. No wider anti-woke campaign or large news backlash was found, and X had no reported reaction. The complaint is isolated, so the score stays very low.
7%
Creator track record context
The cached context gives Natalie Dormer a 58/100 score and Anthony Byrne a 14/100 score. The casting director has a cached score of 41/100, while the producers range from 0 to 12/100. Dormer has linked this film to her wish for more complex female roles and has described the project in feminist terms. That makes the creator signal moderate, with most other key people showing little activist history.
34%
Production
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