Mercifully, just now and then, the merciless Hollywood machine is unable to consume all art and originality like so many bar snacks, and cinema possessing genuine craft and thematic weight is both made and subsequently distributed. In this case,
The Forgiveness of Blood, which won the award for best screenplay at the Berlin film festival, is the work in point. Sundance Selects has just purchased the U.S. distribution rights to the movie according to
The Hollywood Reporter, adding to their previous Cannes Film Festival purchases Certified Copy and Kaboom. We
reported on the movie from the festival two months ago- which acts primarily as a trading point for independently financed productions or concepts- where it met with almost universal acclaim. Co-written and directed by
Joshua Marston whose drama Maria Full of Grace, about a female Colombian drugs mule, was greatly revered upon its release back in 2004, the film concerns the plight of an Albanian family entrenched in a blood feud that cuts across races, generations, cultures and issues of honour. Marstons new film has long been anticipated while he pursued other interests in journalism (his original career), academia and documentary film making; and the Americans return is marked with the detail and authenticity that so marked his debut. Marstons screenwriting award in Berlin (known as The Silver Bear) was shared with
Andamion Murataj, and Albanian film-maker with a background in cinematography, making his screenwriting debut. Indeed, it is this level of commitment to cultural accuracy, along with the use of a number of local and amateur actors, to possess an atmosphere redolent of Gillo Pontecorvo masterpiece Battle of Algiers. Although no announcement has been made, it can only be hoped that positive critical feedback and strong sales in North America will see a UK release sooner rather than later.