Bloodletting: Canijo’s Latest a Masterwork of Familial Upheaval
Portuguese director Joao Canijo returns with his eighth feature, Blood of My Blood, (his first fictional outing since 2007’s Misbegotten) a sprawling, all consuming portrait of one week in the life a matriarchal run familial unit in the slums outside Lisbon, and may indeed be his masterpiece. Inevitably, there’s no denying a comparison of technique with Altman and Mike Leigh (Canijo spent two years developing the characters with the actors via a series of workshops as Leigh does), but the film stands quite firmly as an often uncomfortable, unpleasant, and always fascinating family saga that would, in a fair world, finally open up the English speaking market to Canijo’s previous directorial efforts, which date back to the early 80s.
In Padre Cruz, a slum on the edge of Lisbon, the Fialho clan, whose workable, but makeshift daily existence is about to be severely shaken.
Portuguese director Joao Canijo returns with his eighth feature, Blood of My Blood, (his first fictional outing since 2007’s Misbegotten) a sprawling, all consuming portrait of one week in the life a matriarchal run familial unit in the slums outside Lisbon, and may indeed be his masterpiece. Inevitably, there’s no denying a comparison of technique with Altman and Mike Leigh (Canijo spent two years developing the characters with the actors via a series of workshops as Leigh does), but the film stands quite firmly as an often uncomfortable, unpleasant, and always fascinating family saga that would, in a fair world, finally open up the English speaking market to Canijo’s previous directorial efforts, which date back to the early 80s.
In Padre Cruz, a slum on the edge of Lisbon, the Fialho clan, whose workable, but makeshift daily existence is about to be severely shaken.
- 11/4/2012
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
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