The Forgiveness of Blood 2011

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: Marston artfully uses handheld cameras and natural light and has a nice eye for compositions. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: The Albanian tradition of blood feuds partly inspired Mr. Marston to make this story, yet what gives it shape are the more familiar conventions of the classic art film, including narrative ambiguity, ellipses and silence. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: [A] compelling film touching on the perils of being young-that's it, merely young-in a culture without justice. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: A work of fiction, based on present-day fact, that's quietly affecting and surprisingly dramatic, so long as you're willing to watch it unfold at its own deliberate pace. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: It's a strong premise, and Marston has clearly worked hard to get the traditions of Old World Albanian culture right. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: "The Forgiveness of Blood'' works as a subtle but insistent metaphor for a modern generation trapped by the shibboleths of their elders. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, Chicago Reader: It's intelligent, well-intentioned, and largely inert. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The film's director, Joshua Marston, is American, but, as in his previous film, Maria Full of Grace, about a Colombian girl who accepts a job as a drug smuggler, he does a commendable job of immersing himself in a foreign culture. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: The leads -- both non-actors -- hit sharp, natural notes. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Tradition can be dangerous as well as dumb. "The Forgiveness of Blood" is about a modern kid in an old-world society. It's a terrible fit. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Joshua Marston once again distinguishes himself as a filmmaker serious about understanding lives a world away from his own. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: More a story of whispers when cries are what's called for with lives, livelihoods and family honor on the line. Read more

Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic: The film shows us trenchantly that law often lags behind deep-grained custom. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, NPR: An immersive look at the power of archaic traditions to sabotage a transitioning culture. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: There is so much to admire in Joshua Marston's "The Forgiveness of Blood" that it's easy to overlook the miracle at its center: Marston's artistic idealism. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: A suspenseful work using nonprofessional actors and co-written with an Albanian filmmaker... Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: The result is a film of great humanity that reveals Albania as a primitive region struggling to bridge the gap between medieval European customs and the tide of progress. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: A satisfying, psychologically complex tale of a teenager caught in a blood feud in the craggy countryside of Albania. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: What seems missing is a good notion of how this Albanian society functions on a daily basis. Surely a family cannot live under house arrest forever? Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: A memorable portrait of a society and the demands it makes on those caught up in it. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: We don't see any blood, or much forgiveness either, but we do witness something far more resonant - a young generation caught between the rock of tradition and the hard place of modernity. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: [A] low-key tale of life in rural Albania. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: The Forgiveness of Blood never sheds its own sense of strandedness-house arrest, by and large, being a terrible premise for a movie. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: A heartbreaking Albanian film that counts the toll a family feud takes on all involved. Read more

Ernest Hardy, Village Voice: Marston demonstrated his ability to sustain almost unbearable dramatic tension in his debut feature film, Maria Full of Grace. His sophomore effort, The Forgiveness of Blood, illustrates an impressive deepening of that skill. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It's a thriller that feels like a documentary. Read more