SANGUE DO MEU SANGUE is the most recent film from João Canijo, a respectable Portuguese director. Like other movies he has done before it combines drama with realistic "social" cinema in a very personal and distinctive kind of cinematography. In fact in this movie he keeps the same genre of plot, characters, sets, script and camera work he already did in previous works like SAPATOS PRETOS or GANHAR A VIDA. Canijo always does movies about dark themes, showing us the dark side of society.
This one is no exception. It's a powerful drama about a family which live with low recourses in a working-class neighborhood, in Lisbon's periphery. MÁRCIA (Rita Blanco) is a single mother that lives with her daughter CLAUDIA (Cleia Almeida), son, JOCA (Rafael Morais) and sister, IVETE (Anabela Moreira). CLAUDIA is studying in college to be a nurse, unlike JOCA who fell in the world of criminality (without his family to know though
). IVETE is a single woman in her 30s and has a very solitary life
All these characters perform two parallel stories, both quite dramatic and intense
The first one is about CLAUDIA and her relationship with a teacher (much older than her of course) and the second one is about JOCA and the drugs he stole from his dealer, TELMO (Nuno Lopes), in order to make some money; but TELMO will find out and things will not be easy to JOCA
This movie, which is always set in a context of social misery, shows us these two complex and multifaceted stories about forbidden love, desolation, sadness, misery (social and human...), frustration, betrayal and revenge.
I enjoyed the acting, I think it's generally good, but I have to mention the performances of Rita Blanco, Anabela Moreira, and Nuno Lopes. These actors really do a great job! About the director's work I also think it's good, in his own personal way, but I must say I found a bit confusing those scenes where there're parallel talks (at parts we see parallel conversations in the same scene and it's really confusing to have two pairs of people talking different issues at the same time. Watch these scenes with subtitles would be even better!...).
All in all it's a good Portuguese film and I score it 7/10.
