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THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD (FALJA E GHAKUT) – Thu 21 March, 8pm

By December 8, 2012August 31st, 2015archive, Season 8 Films

Director: Joshua Marston.  Albania, 2010.  108 minutes.  Cert: CLUB.  Language: Albanian (subtitled).

Winner – Silver Bear for Best Screenplay, 2011 Berlin Film Festival

American director Joshua Marston emerged in 2004 with the jolting, Oscar-nominated Maria Full of Grace, about a young Colombian woman working as a drug mule. In his remarkable follow-up, The Forgiveness of Blood, he turns his camera on another corner of the world: contemporary northern Albania, a place still troubled by the ancient custom of interfamilial blood feuds.

From this reality, Marston sculpts a fictional narrative about a teenage brother and sister physically and emotionally trapped in a cycle of violence, a result of their father’s entanglement with a rival clan over a piece of land. The Forgiveness of Blood is a tense and perceptive depiction of a place where tradition and progress coexist uneasily, as well as a dynamic coming-of-age drama.

Marston’s outsider’s view lays bare the contradictions between the ancient tradition and the youngsters’ impatience, helped by fine performances from his largely non-professional cast.

Read The Guardian review. ****

Read The Irish Times review.