Lazos de sangre

MARIANA (Anabela Teixeira) and MARYLIN (Micaela Cardoso) are two girls who live in an orphanage in Oporto. MARIANA's parents and sister died in a car crash (while she was eating a cake!!) and MARYLIN's mother also died when she was four. She never met her father, and he never cared to look out for her… One day they together decide to search for MARILYN's father after a remote clue that probably he was at Alentejo. They run away from the orphanage and start travelling until they really find her father. But the man they find it's really not what they thought they would… They asked him for a job and they start living in his farm, but without saying a word about what really brought them there… a sick story begins!

Or I might say a sick soap-opera begins to be more accurate! In fact this co-production between Hungary, Spain and Portugal really seems more like a soap-opera than anything else! The plot really seems taken from the most average soap-opera and the production is really bad! I don't even understand why is necessary a co-production of three countries to do such lame production! About that I must say the movie is mainly Portuguese, it's directed from a Hungarian, has a few foreign actors but all the rest is Portuguese. The scenarios, most of the actors, the plot, the voices of the foreign actors, the poor quality of the dubbing voices and the mixing of images and sound… all of this is Portuguese! In fact it was a typical problem of the Portuguese cinema until a few years ago when it started finally to appear nice productions in Portugal.

But the problems of this film are not just about its production. The plot falls flat and confusing; it pretends to be so melodramatic that it turns out funny (even hilarious!) at parts; and the acting (joining with the terrible sound mixing) is just bad! Nevertheless it was the debut for two good Portuguese actresses: Micaela Cardoso and Anabela Teixeira. Especially Anabela Teixeira which has nowadays a very respectable "curriculum" in the Portuguese acting scene! The debut was not great but the actress is!

I score it 3/10.