Without Blood opens with Hayek Pinault on a decades-long search

Angelina Jolie's war crime drama Without Blood opened in theatres on 18 Sept., with Salma Hayek Pinault leading a story of childhood loss and adult reckoning, according to GoldDerby.

Jolie wrote, directed and produced the film, adapting the novella of the same name by Italian writer Alessandro Baricco, Variety reported. Hayek Pinault plays Nina, a woman who spends her adult life searching for the three men behind the wartime murder of her father and brother when she was a child.

Demián Bichir plays Tito, the third accomplice. He works as a clerk in a newspaper kiosk at a train station. The film never names its war, time or place. Its characters speak English and Spanish.

Jolie said the production spent a long time talking about pain, losses and traumas, and that community can be very healing. She also said she made the film for her own private healing during a very difficult time in her life, according to People.

Hayek Pinault said she was terrified to take the role. She later described the intense shoot as liberating, AP reported.

What makes this stand out is the history around it. Jolie and Hayek Pinault first acted together in Marvel's Eternals. They later walked the red carpet with Bichir for the Without Blood debut at TIFF 2024 in Toronto, Reuters reported. Jolie was joined by her daughter Zahara Jolie at a New York screening ahead of release.

The collaboration will continue behind the camera. Jolie is set to serve as a producer on Arena, Hayek Pinault's directorial debut, an epic romantic adventure written by Hayek Pinault. The original novel was first published in Italian as Senza Sangue.