Sangue do Meu Sangue

I hope the members of the Academy see Blood of My Blood and nominate the film for Best Foreign Language Film. It is a Cassavetes/Scorsese/Tarantino kind of thriller, that will dry your goats. It's a thriller made of human dramas, rather than suspense or action, with great acting and a modern way of filming. Director Joao Canijo made use of surround sound and camera angles in order to have a complete view of two sequences/discussions at the same time, making ich view more defying.

Besides, Portugal never got a nomination from the Academy, and in the current crisis, no film is being produced or will be if we don't get this recognition. Nominating it will be a statement for Portugal to continue to have an industry.

I would have really liked to give this film 8-9 stars. Excellent photography and editing, which make the spectator feel with great realism the claustrophobic atmosphere of the tiny family house of the protagonists and other sceneries of the film. A masterly use of the sounds surrounding the action, with the omnipresent background noise of the TV and the various noises from the neighborhood which add authenticity to the scenes and the story. Very good performances of all actors. And a solid story about the lives of the members of a working class family, with perfectly depicted one-to-one and overall interactions between them, and which develops seamlessly and with increasing interest throughout the film (despite its more than 3 hours of length!). You feel a part of the scene often, understanding the attitudes and reactions of the different personages, each with a particular story at the center of his/her life, yet affected and conditioned by the relation and interactions with the rest of the personages.

Then why that weird soap opera-like twist with references to a Greek myth in the middle of the film???. It adds nothing to it, and instead makes the story less sound and consistent, twisted, and more proper of a TV serial. Few times a very good film was spoiled by so little, but so it is...

This sprawling drama about a Portuguese family combines melodrama and social realism so inventively that it practically occupies a genre of its own. Writer-director Joao Canijo grounds the movie in vivid observations of the Lisbon public housing complex where much of the action occurs, and his characterizations—developed, Mike Leigh-style, in close collaboration with the cast--have a similarly gritty authenticity. Yet the movie is also richly stylized, with old- fashioned tracking shots and compositions that allow for two conversations at once, and some narrative developments have the force of Greek tragedy. What emerges is an operatic portrayal of the working poor in which each character's struggle seems monumental. Rita Blanco and Rafael Morais are on top of their game with such deep and complex acting that makes us shiver. One of the best movies I've seen, ever! And definitely the best of 2011.

This movie made a strong impact by exposing the scars of a society living on the margins. It humanizes and dignifies the suffering of the working class, refusing any glamourization or easy redemption. Canijo presents characters who live on the edge, doing so with fierce empathy, leaving the audience with the feeling of having lived, if only for a few hours, within that dark and intense universe. This film is, ultimately, a reflection on family love and the cost of survival in adverse conditions, where every choice is a double-edged sword. It is a work that leaves its mark, highlighting João Canijo's power to explore the human condition in its most complex and often uncomfortable dimensions.

This is a movie that i'll never forget. Rita Blanco is in the best (and when i say the best i mean the best) performance i've ever seen in cinema. Yes, i know - i'm Portuguese, it's predictable i would say this is a great movie. But the truth is that Joao Canijo sees the cinema exactly how i see it, going deep on characters and going deep on their misery, always with a peace of comedy and truth in it. it's not a complicated history, the sexual content in it it's not unnecessary and the music background was not written by big contemporany compositors. The only concern of Joao was to make a movie faithful to the inconditional love story behind a poor family with huge problems appearing.