Before the Rain (1994)

This is a powerful movie about the circle of conflict, coming from the authentic Balkan region that is troubled by these issues for ages. It gives you the perspective on these themes in a great, artistic and sincere way. Highly recommended.

Fmovies: The wars in former Yugoslavia have resounded in every corner of that region, and have ignited all manner of subsequent ethnic and religious conflicts within the newly-formed republics. Focusing world attention upon the region through the media has occasionally had the positive effect of raising awareness of the conflicts through art. The work of artists from former Yugoslavia has found an appreciation that has never really existed before, partly due to the fact that they are the most fit to interpret the events there. The republic of Macedonia is certainly experiencing its share of strife.

Nestled in between the countries of Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Albania, it is surrounded by strained relations on all sides, countries that have refused to recognize its autonomy for a long time. A significant Albanian Moslem minority feuds with the dominant Orthodox Christian Slav population. Hardly a week passes without a new arms network running from Alabania to Macedonia being discovered. Despite the presence of U.N. peacekeeping forces, armed skirmishes ravage the countryside.

Milcho Manchevski left his native Macedonia to pursue a college education in the U.S. He studied film at Southern Illinois University. Upon graduating, he moved to New York and began working on commercial, experimental films, and music videos. BEFORE THE RAIN is his first full-length feature, for which he returned to his native country to make. He was able to secure British and French financing with his creative, authoritative and topical screenplay. An inspiring tale about the senselessness of war and the fragility of humans and their loves, the film is, despite some minute flaws, one of the most passionate and sublime cinematic statements of the '90s.

It has an intriguing, if not wholly original non-linear narrative structure. Through three episodes titled, "Words," "Faces," and "Pictures," respectively, the viewer is introduced to three characters whose lives interconnect from minute to strongly significant ways.

Kiril (Gregoire Collin, of OLIVIER, OLIVIER) is a young novice in an Orthodox monastery who cannot help but hide Zamira (Labina Mitevska), a fugitive Albanian girl, from the villagers who want to execute her for murdering a shepherd. He does it out of the goodness of his heart, but perhaps also out of the beginnings of a lustful affection for her. They flee north in an attempt to find Kiril's uncle in Skopje, and meet with dire hardship and tragedy.

Meanwhile, in England, Anne (Katrin Kartlidge, most familiar as the lisping goth girl from Mike Leigh's film NAKED), a photo editor is in the midst of a personal crisis. She is becoming more and more disaffected with her husband Nick (Jay Villiers) while experiencing a difficult, confused relationship with her lover, Aleksandar (Rade Serbedzija), an award-winning native Macedonian photographer. Unsure of what to do, she distances herself from both men, but cannot stem the tide of the turbulent events all around her. The story dispenses with her husband in somewhat contrived way, and she ends up trying to find Aleksandar, who has since left for Macedonia.

Aleksandar returns to his native village, only to find that the overall climate has radically changed, and the simple life he tries to rediscover has since been made more complex by the feuds with the Albanians. His return is met with mixed reactions from warm welcomes from his close friends, to cold-shouldering by the newly-armed local anti-Albanian faction, to o

This for my money is one of the best films of the last ten years. The plot does a wonderful job of starting and ending in the same place, a device Pulp Fiction stole and did less well. Essential for anyone who wants to understand the conflict between Orthodox and Muslim cultures in the Balkans and anyone who simply enjoys a finely crafted film.

Before the Rain fmovies. This movie is by far, the most touching movie i've ever seen. I think it impressed me just the same as "Merry Christmas Mr.Lawrence", though "Before the Rain" is a much more beautiful movie. It's a raw depicture of the Balkans conflict, but also a beautiful one. One with loads of violence but growing from this violence, there's love and compassion.The most touching movie i've ever seen.

This film by Milcho Manchevski is the ideal when talking about explaining and defining the Macedonian problem. I am Macedonian but I live in Germany. So I think I have an overview so that I am able to criticize. The problem between the ethnic groups in Macedonia go around in circles. But in the end it turns out that the circle goes round like a ferry wheel. Everything is happening again and again. The circle is not round though. In every end there is a change. A change which always makes the new beginning worse. In a way it is like a spiral. And Manchevski is smartly telling three stories. They are not linear, but in a way they come close to what the problem really is like. With the last episode he connects the three stories, and you can feel the message - his message.

Unfortunately this film was quite popular only in Europe and I think even in the US, but in Macedonia it was rarely seen by the people. I think if every single Macedonian Citizen had seen and understood this movie, it would be much easier to solve the Macedonian problem today. Because what it says is that we ourselves kill each other. Because of hatred and ethnic principles we force ourselves to fight against each other. And that is exactly why it is leading to nowhere. Because it is a circle...and the circle is not round. And one day, when the spiral is at its end, it's going to be too late.

i saw this film last year and for the rest of the day could not shake the emotional response it had provoked within me. totally original in its construction, it makes the "inventive" timelines of tarantino's work look childish and simplistic. this film tells so many stories and helped me understand the balkan conflict in a new light-- i can't reccomend it highly enough. one of the greatest in recent memory. absolutely beautiful photography. repeat viewings don't diminish its impact-- a rare achievement, especially for a film that is built on what could have easily been a formal 'gimmick'-- but the semi-cyclic form serves the film and heightens the impact and the meaning.