The Forgiveness of Blood
Seven years after his superb directorial debut feature Maria Full Of Grace, Joshua Marston returns with another riveting drama, this time focusing on an Albanian family caught up in a blood feud. The Forgiveness Of Blood is a richly textured portrait of a society in 2011 still bound by a centuries-old code of law.
(...) Nik’s [Halilaj] world is thrown into turmoil when his father Mark and uncle get into an alteraction with a neighbour over land which has been disputed for generations. The neighbour ends up dead, the uncle is taken into police custody and Mark goes into hiding. And according to the Kanun, a 15th century code of law, the aggrieved family has the right to kill Nik or any male family member in retribution. Nik and his little brother are henceforth forbidden to leave the house as a mark of respect.
[T]he director is skilled at building tension and in this film, there is a menace lurking in each scene (...). Halilaj and Lacej, neither who has acted before, fully realise their characters of young people whose futures are compromised by an age-old practice of which they feel they have no part.
Mike Goodridge, Screen International
Duration: 108 min
Dialogue: Albanian
Subtitles: English
Age limit: K15
