Movie House ArrestBy John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee"
Despite the screenplay awards from Berlin and Chicago about a blood feud between families, The Forgiveness of Blood serves only 109 minutes of mostly boredom. The Albanian Kunan code demands that with a murder, a member of the wrongful family must be killed or jailed.
Dad is guilty and hiding, young Nik (Tristan Halilaj)is on house arrest, leading both a real and cinematic static life, to the extent that I looked at my watch, a gauche move allowable because I was the only patron in the house. While now and then Nnik ventures out of the house, most notably to see a girlfriend, most of the film is inside the house with nothing dramatic happening except a few bullet shots into the house and a fire.
Even with those moments, director Joshua Marston doesn't infuse the action with meaning or analysis. Quickly it's back to waiting until besha (some relief) comes from the aggrieved family. We do get a glimpse of Albanian life, but not enough daily living for culture hounds.
To add to the monotony, the shots are largely washed out either because our bulb was not strong or the digital apparatus didn't do what promised to be an interesting visual landscape.
I will await the next Albanian film because Forgiveness of Blood holds promise of better stories to come.
John DeSando co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee, which can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain