- The Forgiveness of Blood. (USA/Albania 2011) Director: Joshua Marston.
Rating: 8 (out of 10)
The Forgiveness of Blood is a neorealist gem made by an American iconoclast. Like a long-lost brother of Italian master Ermanno Olmi, Joshua Marston draws us into his tale with unobtrusive camerawork and a marvellous cast of nonprofessional actors.
Other than a few temporal markers such as smart phones, blue jeans and computers there is little in the story that could not have occurred centuries ago. The film takes place in a modern day Albania that still follows the Kanun, a set of ancient laws and customs established thousands of years ago to deal with things that happened thousands of years ago. Blood feuds are still big in Albania and the Kanun has a lot to say about them.
The traditional framework may be reassuring for older folks but younger generations question the restrictions placed on them by a patriarchal society, nominally Islamic and culturally isolated.
In The Forgiveness of Blood a long-running family feud leads to a murder which has dire ramifications for all the immediate members of the Lindani family. An extended network of elders decides how a Kanun blood feud should play out but while the old men talk things over everybody else has to put their life on hold. If the victim's family isn't appeased more heads could roll. Male members of the Lindani family must hide out and make themselves scarce until an agreement is reached. The teenage daughter, Rudina, literally, becomes the major breadwinner in the family by taking over her father's horse and cart route and supplying his customers with daily fresh-baked bread.
Marston collaborated with writer Andamion Murataj to nail down the cultural specifics and uses his instincts as an artist to bring the story to life onscreen mixing fiction with a keen interest in anthropological detail.
