It's an intense work of filmmaker John Canijo accompanied by a range of great actresses
Blood of My Blood is a film of actress. It is script that was written thinking of them and they are what John Canijo films with a piercing precision. No major rodeos, without great characterizations, we see their faces almost naked of any makeup and facial expressions that tell the story of their desolate lives more or less predictable and hard, which leaves no room to dreams. Of that illusion nothing is left. It is the parade of life filled with daily routines, complicity, secrets and more or less hidden frustrations that lead to a final somewhat unpredictable. It is a hard film, which hurts us. Maybe because there are three actresses who stand for a truth showing it through their characters, I speak of Rita Blanco, Cleia Almeida and Anabela Moreira, mother, daughter and aunt respectively. All make great sacrifices for love. In different ways but no less valid or less noble. The performances of these great artists are magnificent and they fill the screen with such delivery. As for the director, I can say it was a bit baffling, but at the same time very original, some of the scenes in which the dialogues were taking place in unison, between mother and daughter and the aunt and nephew, was a little confused, yes, we want to hear everything, but the same time reinforced the idea of a dysfunctional family environment, where there are characters that are almost invisible as is the case of Yvette, the aunt, she even says it in one of the passages of the film. It is disturbing because it could happen either in a social housing , as in the Rome Avenue, the human tragedy has no class or color, or creed, it just happens, like life. Blood of my blood is above all a tribute to love, unconditionally, the motherly kind and I not speak only of biology. Good movie!
