This Albanian set film has done rather well at film festivals over the last year and as an insight into Albanian culture is fascinating.
It tells the story of an Albanian family essentially under house arrest after the father and uncle kill a neighbour over a land dispute.
The uncle is imprisoned and father goes on the run which leaves eldest son Nik the primary target of an ancient cultural code which says retribution can be meted out by killing a male member of the offending family. It is deemed socially acceptable that only Nik's sister Rudina can leave the house and therefore the weight of maintaining an income for the family to live off falls to her.
Meanwhile Nik's imprisonment in the family home is doubly frustrating for the teenager as prior to the murder he'd been embarking on a fledgling relationship with a girl at school.
A mixture of teen angst and cultural drama, Forgivenss of Blood is a quietly tense film and beautifully acted by the young leads. However, it falls victim, just a little, to its incarcation storyline. When Nik starts going out of his head with boredom being stuck at home, the film does start to lose a little of its pace. But, otherwise is nicely handled and well worth a look not least for lifting the lid on a country that doesn't normally feature on the silver screen (to my shame I had to Google Albanian to remind myself exactly where in Europe it is).
I'm going to give Forgiveness of Blood 62%. On IMDb it has 65% and a Metacritic score of 75%. On Rotten Tomatoes it has 85% from critics and 77% of site visitors rated it 3.5 stars or higher.
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