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Production has begun on Hatixhe and Shaban, the third feature film by Kosovar filmmaker Visar Morina. A project that won the prestigious Baumi Award in 2022, Screen Daily confirms that production began this week — we are looking at six-week shoot in capital Pristina and the village of Sllakofc. The filmmaker reteams with thesps Astrit Kabashi and Flonja Kodheli (who topline), Alban Ukaj, Tristan Halilaj and Refet Abazi are the supporting players. Vicky Bane’s Pia Hellenthal and Morina are producing along with Schuldenberg Films’ Sophie Ahrens, Fabian Altenried and Kristof Gerega.…...

Production is underway in Kosovo on Hatixhe And Shaban, the new feature from Exile filmmaker Visar Morina.

The feature will shoot for 40 days in Kosovan capital Pristina and the village of Sllakofc. Astrit Kabashi and Flonja Kodheli lead the cast, alongside Alban Ukaj, Tristan Halilaj and Refet Abazi.

Morina wrote the film with Doruntina Basha. It follows a couple living in a village with their three daughters, who must move to the capital looking for work when a family member steals their 12 cows.

The film is produced by Morina’s company Vicky Bane that he runs with Pia Hellenthal, with Sophie Ahrens,...

Rites of passage, teenage girls in small towns, strict and uncomprehending parents: We know the drill, yet few films riffing on the subject get the mood and ambiguities as right as “Looking for Venera.” , ensuring the story is grounded in a particular place while making her protagonist a readily identifiable, highly sympathetic young woman. Impressively shot by fast-rising Dp Luis Armando Arteaga and anchored by richly multi-layered performances, the film deservedly won a special jury award in Rotterdam and should get significant attention throughout the coming year.

The town where Venera (Kosovare Krasniqi) lives is nothing special to look at, set among hills made bare by harsh winters, ugly substandard constructions and the recent war that decimated the adult male population. With no parks, internet or after-school activities, there’s not much to do, and tradition-bound customs continue to exert a stranglehold on adult social networks. Unlike many of her friends,...

Joshua Marston, the director of the 2004 Oscar nominated Maria Full of Grace finally returns with his next feature length narrative, the Silver Berlin Bear for Best Screenplay winning (2011 Berlin International Film Festival) The Forgiveness of Blood, a blood feud tale set in modern day Albania. The Los Angeles native once again proves he has considerable talents for focusing on subjects not often depicted by American filmmakers, with tense, enthralling narratives. With this latest feature, Marston sets his sights on a country not often documented in the annals of cinema.

The film opens with a brief characterization of main protagonists Nik (Tristan Halilaj) and his sister, Rudina (Sindi Lacej). Both are currently students, and Nik is close to graduating from high school, discussing plans to open an internet café, and courting a female peer in his class. However, the film succumbs to its predicament rather quickly. Two patriarchs are sparring over...

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (15)

(Alison Klayman, 2012, Us) Ai Weiwei, Danqing Chen, Ying Gao. 91 mins

Art and activism merge in this fascinating inside portrait of China's best known artist, which conveys both the roots of Ai's provocations and the authorities' paranoid responses to them. He comes across as a fearless creator, a reluctant hero, a committed campaigner and a fallible human being, treading a perilous line between the adoring global art market and China's Kafkaesque state apparatus.

360 (15)

(Fernando Meirelles, 2011, UK/Aus/Fra/Bra) Rachel Weisz, Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law. 110 mins

Suffering from a surfeit of international stars and locations, this join-the-dots drama zips between a series of emotional episodes without ever gaining much momentum.

The Dinosaur Project (12A)

(Sid Bennett, 2012, UK) Natasha Loring, Matt Kane, Peter Brooke. 83 mins

Chatty Brit explorers regret discovering a modern-day Lost World in the Congo in this low-budget cross between Monsters and Jurassic Park.

The Forgiveness Of Blood (12A)

(Joshua Marston,...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Oct. 16, 2012

Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95

Studio: Criterion

Tristan Halilaj and Sindi Lacej are forced to grow up quickly in The Forgiveness of Blood.

A tough coming-of-age drama, 2011’s The Forgiveness of Blood is the second feature by writer-director Joshua Marston, who broke out in 2004 with his Oscar-nominated movie Maria Full of Grace, about a young Colombian woman working as a drug mule

In his follow-up to Maria, Marston turns his camera on another corner of the world: contemporary northern Albania, a place still troubled by the ancient custom of inter-familial blood feuds. From this reality, Marston sculpts a fictional narrative about a teenage brother (Tristan Halilaj) and sister (Sindi Lacej) who are physically and emotionally trapped in a cycle of violence, a result of their father’s entanglement with a rival clan over a piece of land.

The Forgiveness of Blood received a limited release to theaters in the U.

It feels like only yesterday that we were talking about the best films of 2011, and yet here we are, nearly at the end of June, and we've seen pretty much everything that the first half of the year has to offer. So with the mid-point of 2012 nearly upon us, we thought we'd look over the best films we've seen in theaters over the last six months.

And it's not been a terrible year so far. There have been a few real stinkers and some disappointments, but there's also been some decent blockbuster fare and a bevy of foreign language and independent films that have been serious treats for filmgoers. How many of these will still be on our year-end lists come December remains to be seen; there's some tough competition on the way. But all in all, the first part of this year at the movies could have been a lot worse.

Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the Berlin Film Festival, the powerful and richly textured second feature from Joshua Marston, The Forgiveness Of Blood focuses on an Albanian family caught up in a blood feud. Nik (Tristan Halilaj) is a carefree teenager in a small town with a crush on the school beauty and ambitions to start his own internet café. His world is suddenly up-ended when his father and uncle become entangled in a land dispute that leaves a fellow villager murdered. According to a centuries-old code of law, this entitles the dead man’s family to take the life of a male from Nik’s family as retribution. His uncle in jail and his father in hiding, Nik is the prime target and confined to the home while his younger sister Rudina (Sindi Laçej) is forced to leave school and take over their father’s business.

Film: The Forgiveness of Blood (2011) Cast includes: Refet Abazi, Tristan Halilaj, Sindi Lacej, Ilire Vinca Celaj Director: Joshua Marston (Maria Full of Grace) Genre: Drama, Albanian with subtitles (109 minutes) Northern Albania is a picturesque region caught between the old world and the new. Bread deliveries are made daily by primitive horse-drawn carts, while cell phones have become a necessity of life for teenagers. On his bread delivery route, the shortcut Mark takes across Sokol's land was negotiated decades ago by Mark's grandfather. Now Sokol wants to block the right of way. When Mark's teenaged son Nik helps out, they move the rocks and go through. At the local café, the men from Sokol's family sit across from Mark, Nik and Uncle Zev. The friendly jousting about the rocks has a decidedly nasty edge. Mark tells a customer, "With all due respect, Sokol is an idiot." "You're both idiots," she replies.

Title: The Forgiveness of Blood Director: Joshua Marston Starring: Tristan Halilaj, Sindi Lacej, Refet Abazi, Zana Hasaj, Veton Osmani, Ilire Vinca Celaj, Cun Lajci Winner of the Silver Bear Award for Best Screenplay at last year’s Berlin Film Festival, “The Forgiveness of Blood,” from writer-director Joshua Marston (“Maria Full of Grace”), details a simmering contempt between two present day Albanian clans — think the Montagues and Capulets, minus any love story – that boils over into a blood feud that slowly rips a family apart when a land dispute leaves one man dead. Like 2009′s “The Stoning of Soraya M” and “Ajami,” as well as a small handful of other foreign films, Marston’s movie...

American indie director Joshua Marston took a long time (eight years!) to follow up his award-winning "Maria Full of Grace," so pressure is riding high on his latest, "The Forgiveness of Blood," to deliver.

His fans need not to worry. Although a good deal quieter, "The Forgiveness of Blood" is equally as harrowing and discomforting as "Maria Full of Grace," and finds the director once again eliciting stellar performances from a young cast.

In "Maria Full of Grace," the Caliornia-born writer-director ventured to Colombia to depict the terrifying journey of a young woman (Academy Award nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno) who becomes a drug mule to support her family. "The Forgiveness of Blood" finds Marston traveling to Northern Albania to depict a modern-day blood feud in a rural village.

The drama centers on Nik (Tristan Halilaj), a high schooler confined to what amounts to house arrest after his father kills a...

Humanity itself is a combination of two divergent forces: reason and fury (at least that’s what The Tree of Life teaches us). These are two states of being that do not walk hand-in-hand, but they can feed into each other to dangerous results. When we act impulsively, any forethought is temporarily tossed to the wayside in order to defend ourselves, or to get even. But when enough acts build up to where a brash action is backed by reason? That’s when the trouble really begins. And that is where we meet The Forgiveness of Blood, Joshua Marston‘s follow-up to his acclaimed debut, Maria Full of Grace.

The Forgiveness of Blood is a film 6oo years in the making. Nik (Tristan Halilaj) lives as an average teenager, living in Northern Albania. Like all teenagers, he has escape on his mind. He’ll get lost in PlayStation 2 soccer games,...

The Forgiveness of Blood (opening in theaters on February 24th) is a drama from writer/director Joshua Marston (Maria Full of Grace) that focuses on an Albanian family caught up in a blood feud. Nik (Tristan Halilaj) is a carefree teenager in a small town, until his world comes to a screeching halt when his father and uncle become entangled in a land dispute that leads a fellow villager murdered, and a centuries-old code of law entitles the dead man’s family to take the life of a male from Nik’s family as retribution. With his uncle in jail and his father in hiding, Nik is the prime target, indefinitely confined to the home while his younger sister, Rudina (Sindi Lacej), is forced to leave school and take over the family business. During a recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, Joshua Marston talked about telling this story of the...

The Forgiveness of Blood

Directed by: Joshua Marston

Cast: Tristan Halilaj, Sindi Lacej, Refet Abazi

Running Time: 1 hr 50 min

Rating: Not Rated

Showtimes at Piff: 2/10 8:30pm at Cinemagic, 2/12 5:00pm at Lloyd Center Complete Piff Schedule

Plot: After years of bickering, Mark and his brother kill their neighbor over a land dispute. He runs from police, and incurs a blood debt, meaning any males in his family could be killed to make things even. This forces his sons to stay inside, and his daughter must quit school and work to keep the family afloat.

Who’S It For? The kids seem remarkably similar to American teens, making the film really relatable.

Overall

Marston’s last feature, Maria Full of Grace, felt like a foreign film though it took place in the Us. This time, he shoots the whole film in Albania, with no English at all. A family falls...

The Forgiveness of Blood Trailer. Joshua Marston‘s The Forgiveness of Blood (2011) movie trailer stars Refet Abazi, Tristan Halilaj, Sindi Lacej, and Ilire Vinca Celaj. The Forgiveness of Blood‘s plot synopsis: “This film’s center is a family in Albania. The main characters are Rudina, the oldest daughter, and Nik, the oldest son. Both have a pretty normal life. Rudina is an A-student in high-school and Nik very popular. He just fell in love with one of his fellow students. Their father earns the families income with a little bread delivery service. For that he uses a short cut through the neighbours ground, but the neighbour doesn’t necessarily like that. But the ground had actually belonged to Rudina’s and Nik’s family once.

One day the conflict escalates and the neighbour gets killed by Rudina’s and Nik’s father and their uncle. Because only their uncle...

[1] After breaking out in 2004 with the acclaimed Maria Full of Grace, director Joshua Marston moved into television, helming episodes of Six Feet Under, In Treatment, and How to Make It in America. Now, eight years later, Marston's finally returning to the silver screen with his second feature The Forgiveness of Blood. Written by Marston and Andamion Murataj, the Albanian-language drama deals with the life-changing consequences of a violent altercation between two small town families. Like Marston's previous film, The Forgiveness of Blood features inexperienced actors in the lead roles -- and as with Maria Full of Grace, which earned star Catalina Sandino Moreno an Oscar nomination for her first professional role, Marston seems to draw some rather impressive performances here from young stars Tristan Halilaj and Sindi Laçej. Watch the first trailer after the jump. [via The Playlist [2]] The Forgiveness of Blood won the Silver Bear Award for Best Screenplay upon its world...

It is has been quite some time since seeing the work of director Joshua Marston. Outside of a segment in the anthology New York, I Love You, his work hasn’t hit the big screen since the Oscar-nominated Maria Full of Grace. He finally returns this year with the family drama The Forgiveness of Blood. Premiering at the Berlin Film Festival (and nabbing a Silver Bear for Best Screenplay), it is has gone on to appear at Telluride, Toronto, London and more.

The trailer has hit via Apple and it looks like a tense drama with strong characters, not unlike his previous film. I haven’t heard much buzz for it outside of festivals, so I wonder if it lives up to his other work, but we’ll be able to check it out next month via IFC Films. See the trailer and poster below for the film starring Tristan Halilaj,...

Poster for Joshua Marston's The Forgiveness of Blood, starring Tristan Halilaj. The winner of the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at last year's Berlin Film Festival gets its first poster. Joshua Marston (Maria Full of Grace) directs as well as scripting alongside Andamion Murataj. Sindi Laçej, Refet Abazi, Ilire Vinca Çelaj and Çun Lajçi complete the main cast of the drama produced by Paul Mezey, co-produced by Gwen Bialic and Andamion Murataj, and executive produced by Eric Abraham, Janine Gold, Domenico Procacci, Hunter Gray and Tyler Brodie. The film opens February 24th. The powerful and richly textured second feature focuses on an Albanian family caught up in a blood feud. Nik (Tristan Halilaj) is a carefree teenager in a small town with a crush on the school beauty and ambitions to start his own internet café. His world is suddenly up-ended when his father and uncle become entangled in a land dispute.

Poster for Joshua Marston's The Forgiveness of Blood, starring Tristan Halilaj. The winner of the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at last year's Berlin Film Festival gets its first poster. Joshua Marston (Maria Full of Grace) directs as well as scripting alongside Andamion Murataj. Sindi Laçej, Refet Abazi, Ilire Vinca Çelaj and Çun Lajçi complete the main cast of the drama produced by Paul Mezey, co-produced by Gwen Bialic and Andamion Murataj, and executive produced by Eric Abraham, Janine Gold, Domenico Procacci, Hunter Gray and Tyler Brodie. The film opens February 24th. The powerful and richly textured second feature focuses on an Albanian family caught up in a blood feud. Nik (Tristan Halilaj) is a carefree teenager in a small town with a crush on the school beauty and ambitions to start his own internet café. His world is suddenly up-ended when his father and uncle become entangled in a land dispute.

Poster for Joshua Marston's The Forgiveness of Blood, starring Tristan Halilaj. The winner of the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at last year's Berlin Film Festival gets its first poster. Joshua Marston (Maria Full of Grace) directs as well as scripting alongside Andamion Murataj. Sindi Laçej, Refet Abazi, Ilire Vinca Çelaj and Çun Lajçi complete the main cast of the drama produced by Paul Mezey, co-produced by Gwen Bialic and Andamion Murataj, and executive produced by Eric Abraham, Janine Gold, Domenico Procacci, Hunter Gray and Tyler Brodie. The film opens February 24th. The powerful and richly textured second feature focuses on an Albanian family caught up in a blood feud. Nik (Tristan Halilaj) is a carefree teenager in a small town with a crush on the school beauty and ambitions to start his own internet café. His world is suddenly up-ended when his father and uncle become entangled in a land dispute.

When "Maria Full Of Grace" arrived in 2004, the film won critical praise that was carried all the way to an Oscar nomination for Catalina Sandino Moreno, and marked the arrival of director Joshua Marston. It seemed like the world was an oyster for Marston, who honed his chops following the hit film with some television work, and contributed a segment to the omnibus "New York, I Love You." However, his followup feature "The Forgiveness Of Blood," arriving six years after 'Grace,' went in a direction no one could have guessed. The film is an Albanian language drama, centering on a blood feud between two families, told through the eyes of the brother and sister pairing of one of the affected families, Nik and Rudina (non-actors Tristan Halilaj and Sindi Lacej). It's some ambitious fare, and the results have earned praise from nearly every place where "The Forgiveness Of Blood" has landed.

The Forgiveness of Blood

Directed by Joshua Marston

United States, Albania, 2011

Following a seven-year feature-film hiatus, director Joshua Marston returns with The Forgiveness of Blood, a coming-of-age tale set in a small Albanian village. Nik (Tristan Halilaj) is a typical teenager – chasing girls, and riding around on a friend’s motorcycle. When a longstanding feud with a neighboring family erupts into violence, Nik is forced into house-arrest, according to the laws of the village. His sister Rudina, (Sindi Lacej) the brains of the family, leaves school to take over the daily bread delivery, and their father remains on the lam for a murder he may or may not have directly instigated.

While politically backgrounded, Marston’s films aren’t political, per se. As with 2004’s Maria Full of Grace, that being the better film of the two, The Forgiveness of Blood finds a young protagonist in a dire situation and...

Chantal Akerman (center), Almayer's Folly World Cinema Selections Almayer's Folly: Chantal Akerman loosely adapts Joseph Conrad’s novel set in Malaysia, the tragic tale of a failed European trader and his "mixed blood" daughter. Dir Chantal Akerman. Cast Stanislas Merhar, Marc Barbé, Aurora Marion, Zac Andrianasolo. Belgium/France. U.S. Premiere. Alps: Dogtooth director Yorgos Lanthimos returns with a tale of a group offering an unusual service for grieving families: They inhabit the role of the recently deceased. Dir Yorgos Lanthimos. Scr Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou. Cast Aggeliki Papoulia, Aris Servetalis, Ariane Labed, Johnny Vekris. Greece/France. U.S. Premiere. CARRÉ Blanc: One of the strongest debuts in years, CARRÉ Blanc is a dystopian sci-fi vision of a world with limited resources and limitless cruelty. Dir/Scr Jean-Baptiste Léonetti. Cast Sami Bouajila, Julie Gayet, Jean-Pierre Andreani, Fejria Deliba, Valerie Bodson. France/Luxembourg/Russia/Belgium/Switzerland. The Day He Arrives:...

Telluride 2011, Day 2

The most perilous and difficult aspect of attending Telluride – whether you’re a passholder, a guest, a sponsor, or a ticketholder – is going to the bathroom. Really. Because the great majority of the fest’s venues are assembled specifically for the event, some of its facilities are ill-equipped to deal with hundreds of rabid moviegoers who’ve been specifically instructed to stay hydrated to stave off altitude sickness. As a result, the lines are long – but as the fest’s employees are quick to reiterate, waiting in line is the second-greatest thing to do here. That’s not spin: because there seems to be no such animal as a casual Telluride-goer, nearly every attendee has a story to tell, a great movie to recommend, or a questionable opinion they feel very strongly about.

On the subject of non-casual entites, Today’s Symposium schedule included two potentially incredible speakers: Wim Wenders and Werner Herzog.

"The Forgiveness of Blood," Joshua Marston's follow-up to "Maria Full of Grace," has been acquired by Sundance Selects. It was announced today that the film - which won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival - villa be released in the U.S. via Selects, a sister division to IFC Films and IFC Midnight. "Blood" stars Tristan Halilaj, Sindi Lacej and Refet Abazi. It was ...