Writer/Director João Canijo boldly balances nuanced social realism with high stakes melodrama in this sprawling, humane portrait of a troubled working class family. Márcia Fialho (Rita Blanco) is a weary matriarch who lives with her lonely sister Ivete and grown children — delinquent Joca and nursing student Cláudia — in a suburban slum outside Lisbon. Cláudia's affair with a married professor and Joca's involvement with drug dealers threaten Márcia's attempts to keep her family afloat. Blood of My Blood unfolds in a series of lengthy and audacious tracking shots, which follow the drama through the cramped spaces of the Fialho household, mapping the physical and emotional distances between the characters. Overlapping conversations and actions bring the story to vivid vérité life. A popular and critical success, Blood of My Blood topped Portugal's box office last year and is the country's official submission for the 2012 foreign language Oscar®, making it a likely breakout film for Portugese cinema.