Sangre

Though Diego (Recio) and Blanca (Saldaña) are very much in love – their evenings together usually consist of sex and watching TV soaps on the sofa – she’s so insanely jealous of his (apparently non-existent) womanising that she won’t even let him have his teenage daughter from a previous marriage come to stay in their spare room. Trouble is, the girl’s in with a bad crowd, and Diego needs to act quickly. There’s a wry charm to the innocent performances in this first feature, and the modest account of alienation, confusion and guilt is not without interest. Towards the end, however, as the story takes a melodramatic turn, one can only wonder whether it was producer Reygadas (‘Japón’, ‘Battle in Heaven’) who encouraged or influenced the drift into portentousness.