TIFF Review: ‘Without Blood’ Tells a Brief Story That Can’t Fill a Feature Film

One event can prove so formative as to define a person’s entire life. While a child may not – or in some cases, very well may – understand its significance at the time, it can follow them for years and shape the path they take. Without Blood presents one such protagonist, who witnesses the murder of her father and brother at a very young age and has her whole life set on a new course as a result. While the premise is somewhat interesting, there’s no reason that the limited contents of this film needed to occupy an entire feature.

In the early 1900s, Manuel (Alfredo Herrera) waits anxiously with his rifle ready as three armed men approach the house. Their leader, Salinas (Juan Minujín) seeks revenge on the doctor he believes is responsible for the death of his brother. While Manuel denies responsibility, he and his son are still both killed. When Salinas’ young accomplice Tito opens a trapdoor to find Manuel’s young daughter hiding, he silently closes it, saving her life. Years later, an adult Nina (Salma Hayek Pinault) comes to find Tito (Demián Bichir), looking for a deep conversation about what’s transpired in the long period since they first met on that fateful day.

This film is billed as a “parable-like tale of family, war, and revenge” and all those descriptors are certainly true. Its opening scene is an extended introduction since it sets out the fate for these characters, and the rest plays out over coffee as Nina asks Tito to tell her all that he knows about her history after he thought she perished in the fire set by Salinas and soon discovered that she was alive after all. While they explain certain events, most are played out via flashbacks that show, with no ambiguity but perhaps lacking some context, what transpired, though offer no clarity on Manuel’s alleged guilt and the reason for that catalytic execution.

When Nina pushes Tito to continue talking, he reminds her, “It’s not my story, it’s yours. You know it much better than I do,” to which she responds that she wants to hear it from him. As soon as she approaches the train station lottery kiosk where he works and asks him to join her despite his insistence that he can’t close his stand, he knows who she is. He comprehends the gravity of her request and that he’s unlikely to leave with his life, having dreaded this eventual moment since the day he went to that house and knowing that his fate may be deserved.

While the setup of this film is interesting, there’s just not enough content to fill its relatively brief ninety-one minutes. It’s also the kind of premise that feels more appropriate in cinema than anywhere else, where a protagonist who knows which three people are to blame for her misfortunes waits until her hair is turning gray to track one of them down rather than hunting him while he’s in the prime of his life. It might be sweeter revenge to find him when he’s alone and feels as if he hasn’t accomplished anything, but that seems contrived and not as effective a reunion as much sooner might have.

That this film is so light on narrative is a disappointment considering Oscar winner Angelina Jolie’s bold early films as a director, In the Land of Blood and Honey and Unbroken, both of which were large in scope and quite immersive. The storytelling style employed here to frame the plot takes audiences out of it again and again, interrupting what little dialogue and development there is. Hayek Pinault and Bichir turn in decent performances but have little to do other than talk. There’s nothing inherently bad about what this film does showcase, but it could very easily have been much tighter and more worthwhile as a thirty-minute short.

Movie Rating: 5/10

Awards Buzz: While Jolie and Hayek Pinault are a theoretical dream team, and Bichir is also a past Oscar nominee, this film is not the vehicle any of the three of them need to attain their next nominations.