Salma Hayek Brings Revenge, Memory and Old Wounds to Jolie’s Latest
Salma Hayek has revenge, memory and one very old wound on her mind in the newly released trailer for Angelina Jolie’s Without Blood.
Jolie writes and directs the intimate war drama, adapting Alessandro Baricco’s novel of the same name and putting Hayek opposite fellow Mexican screen heavyweight Demián Bichir.
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Salma Hayek and Demián Bichir face the ghosts of war.
Dig into Angelina Jolie’s latest directorial effort, Salma Hayek’s film work and the novel behind this tense story of memory, revenge and survival.
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The film centers on Nina, played by Hayek, who survived a brutal attack on her family during an unnamed conflict. Years later, she deliberately approaches Tito, played by Bichir, a man connected to that violence. What first looks like a chance encounter slowly reveals itself as something much more loaded.
“Revenge is the drug that allows us to fight,” Nina says in the trailer, setting the tone for a story less interested in battlefield spectacle than in what war leaves behind inside the people who survive it.
Without Blood originally had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2024, where Jolie, Hayek and Bichir introduced the film and discussed its deliberately stripped-back approach to violence, memory and retaliation.
TIFF described it as an intimate chamber piece about the way war continues living inside people long after the weapons go quiet. Much of the story rests on the confrontation between Nina and Tito, with flashbacks gradually filling in the history between them.
The film also marks Jolie’s first feature as director since 2017’s First They Killed My Father. Her directing work has repeatedly returned to the human cost of war, including In the Land of Blood and Honey and Unbroken, but Without Blood narrows the scale down to two people carrying the consequences years later.
Hayek has spoken warmly about working with Jolie, calling her an unusually sensitive director and explaining that the emotional weight of Nina initially made her hesitate to take the role.
Visually, Jolie brought in Oscar-nominated cinematographer Seamus McGarvey, while the production shot extensively at Rome’s legendary Cinecittà Studios. The film runs 91 minutes and also stars Juan Minujín.
After its festival run and a 2025 release in Italy, Without Blood is now set for a U.S. theatrical release on September 18, 2026.
So yes, Salma is out for revenge — but this one looks much more interested in what revenge costs after the anger has had years to settle in.
Watch Salma Hayek in the Official Trailer for Angelina Jolie’s Without Blood
The new trailer follows Hayek’s Nina as she confronts Bichir’s Tito years after wartime violence destroyed her family, ahead of the film’s September 18, 2026 theatrical release.
Sources: Toronto International Film Festival; Reuters; Entertainment Weekly.
