The Way He Looks – Blindness, First Love, and the Quiet Revolution of Being Ordinary

A Queer Teen Film That Refuses to Be a Tragedy

Brazilian film The Way He Looks (Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho) opens with an ordinary annoyance: a blind teenager, Leonardo, struggling to assert his independence against overprotective parents and a school environment that alternates between boredom and bullying. The film could have turned this setup into a heavy drama about discrimination. Instead, it chooses something more radical in its simplicity: a gentle, almost quiet queer coming‑of‑age story where the biggest stakes are friendship, freedom, and first love.