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The Forgiveness of Blood

Critics' Pick

(No longer in theaters)

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Director: Joshua Marston Cast: Refet Abazi, Tristan Halilaj, Sindi Lacej, Ilire Vinca Celaj
Running Time: 109 minutes
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Genre

Drama

Distributor

IFC Films

Release Date

Feb 24, 2012

Release Notes

Limited

Review

Following some aborted higher-budget projects, the young director of Maria Full of Grace, Joshua Marston, journeyed to Albania to make another compelling film touching on the perils of being youngï¿½that’s it, merely youngï¿½in a culture without justice. The awkward, formal title The Forgiveness of Blood evokes the awkward, formal set of laws called the Kanun, mandating confinement to one’s house on pain of death for families in which one member has committed a high crime. After their father and uncle kill a landowner in a long-lived dispute over road access, the teenage Nik (Tristan Halilaj) and his younger sister, Rudina (Sindi Lacej), are yanked from school and shut away for what could well be years, their development literally arrested. With his father in hiding and childishly unwilling to take responsibility, Nik labors fruitlessly to negotiate a settlement.

Working from a screenplay he co-wrote with Andamion Murataj, Marston treats the story as a case study rich in absurditiesï¿½among them the vision of children playing computer games in a home quarantined on the word of ancient and increasingly maladaptive mores. The end is almost too painstakingly respectful of Albanian families still locked up and going mad. The film might well have been called The Punishment of Blood Feuds. — David Edelstein