The Forgiveness of Blood
Directed by Joshua Marston
Sundance Selects
Being a teenager is emotional enough, but to be one stuck in the midst of an Albanian blood war just makes it all the more angst-ridden.
That case is presented in the dramatic film, “The Forgiveness of Blood,” in which scrappy teenager Nik (Tristan Halilaj) lives a breezy existence with hopes of starting up an Internet cafe and striking up a romance with a girl from school. However, after his father Mark (Refet Abazi) is implicated in the murder of a rival in a land dispute and goes into hiding, he initiates a centuries-old blood war.
The war’s resolution is simple and complex at the same time – the dead man’s family has the right to take the life of a male member of Nik’s family. The other solution for Nik’s family is a little less bloody, but equally as disquieting – the male members of the family must be confined in the house to show respect for the death.
Cinematography becomes a telling and effective indicator of the film’s plot as the film vacillates from beautiful sweeping shots of the Albanian countryside to the close-ups of Nik’s exasperated face as he becomes a prisoner of his father’s actions. Younger sister Rudina (Sindi Lacej) becomes the admirable heroine of the family as she takes over the family’s cart and bread-selling business.
It would not be incorrect to say that Nik is pretty petulant when it comes to his situation. Devoted little sis has to haul a horse and cart to deliver bread to the entire village while he’s moping around the house using all the minutes on their family’s only prepaid cell phone, or sneaking out of the house at night risking his and his family’s lives.
And while Lacej and Halilaj are amateur Albanian actors, it is perhaps their statuses as ingenues that gives the film the depth to showcase the culturally complex tradition within the film. Both actors inhabit the contrasting allegories of duty and rebellion as Rudina sacrifices her own education for the family business and Nik constantly tries to find a way to escape tradition’s physical and emotional bounds.
Director Joshua Marston once again provides a visceral film reminiscent of his previous film, “Maria Full of Grace.” Adding to the film’s realism is its creeping suspense of whether Nik can escape or adhere to custom, highlighting the cultural midway that Albania resides in, between modernity and the onslaught of tradition. Full of palpable tensions between the old-guard and youth, the film delivers a lustrous and succinct depiction of culture clash and its ultimate sacrifice.