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Rating:  -
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.
Before the Rain, directed by Milcho Manchevski, is a depition of the ethnic violence that plagued the Balkans in the 1990's. It is a clear message of how senseless violence is.
The film has scenes in both England and the former Yugoslavia. It is about an award winning photojournalist who returns home to the Balkans after the war and finds his hometown still in ethnic tensions.
The film is superb and has excellent scenery. The violence is necessarily intense to emphasize how senseless violence can be.
The DVD includes director's audio commentary with Annette Insdorf, an interview with Rade Serbedzija, a 1993 documentary of the film's production, theatrical trailers, on set footage, slideshows of behind the scenes material, Manchevski's music video, "Tennessee", and the audio soundtrack.
This is an excellent film that should not be missed.
Rating:  -
Macedonian film with English subtitles consists of three stories focusing on tragic love affairs.
The first story set in the beautiful Macedonian mountains is about a young monk who takes on a vow of silence and defends/hides a young Albanian woman who is accused of murder. He is forced to leave the monastery and their relationship comes to a brutal end.
The second story is set in London. A beautiful woman is torn between the love for her husband and leaving him for a famous war photographer and Macedonian by the name of Aleksandar. Her relationship with her husband comes to a violent end.
The final story pulls the prior two stories together. Aleksandar, the war photographer, is sickened about his role in the death of a civilian in his effort to get the "big news picture." He leaves his job in London as a war photographer and returns home to Macedonia. He learns that his home village is torn apart between civil strife between the Macedonians and the Albanians. Hana, his Albanian girlfriend, is banned from seeing him again. Aleksandar, the former photographer who from a distance captured civil war in pictures - now tries to do his part in ending the senseless violence and hatred - instead he finds that he ultimately becomes a casualty (and is in the picture instead of taking the picture).
Recap:
1) Film is divided into 3 stories (with the third pulling the first two together) and they are told backwards which is confusing.
2) Despite the confusion, the images (facial, countryside, city, mountains, skyline), the emotions, the characters, the relationships (civil war where neighbors and friends turn on each other) are all deeply moving. This film will stay with me for some time.
3) Excellent music/soundtrack by the Anastasia band.
Rating: -
I had heard only that "Before the Rain" is a great movie about issues in the present day Balkans. It is an area of interest to me because of it's history and it's on-going internal strife. I have read a number of books that have given me a sense of what the culture is about. I have come away from studying it's history with an appreciation (rightly or wrongly) that only a man as powerful as Marshal Tito could reign over such internal animosities. However, until I watched "Before the Rain", I didn't fully comprehend the level of such hatred.
The brilliance of "Before the Rain" is seen in the first Act of the movie (Which has conveniently identified the three Acts in case we somehow miss the signifigance). I dare not give away too much in describing the sequence of events. However, consider that you were moved to give up that which you held most precious in your life to help someone else. Then, after making the sacrifice, you discover how little the rest of the world cares for what you did; especially those whom you expected support from. The message is much deeper than that mainly because of the skills of the writer/director Milcho Manchevski who brings to the screen the passions that lead to such self-destructive actions.
The second Act, for me, was a reminder that the hatreds and vendettas are so internalized that their victims could be relocated to anywhere in the world and still need to act out their passions. It was also a helpful way to introduce the man whobecame the main character in the movie.
The third Act was a reinforcement of the first with the added message that no one can change these passions that have already been unleashed on their victims. The efforts our our hero are futile against a feud that has lasted 600 years.
Amidst the rustic beauty of Macedonia and the outstanding preformances by the cast, Manchevski has told his country, his region, and his world the story they all need to hear. His pesamistic message sobers us but also gives hope in a way. If people can begin to see themselves in this movie, maybe that can see the problem as well. While the rest of us look from afar at the problems of a different culture, maybe we, too, might come to understand the self-destructive nature of our own vendettas.
Rating: -
"Time never dies. The circle is never round."
Let me join the choir singing unanimous praise for Milèo Manèevski's emotionally extraordinary anti-war film, Before the Rain. Made during the Balkan war-torn 90s and filmed in Macedonia and London, Manèevski's brilliant film documents the violence in the Balkans through three stories, all of which involve doomed love affairs. In the first, "Words," an orthodox Christian monk named Kiril (Grégoire Colin), harbors Zamira (Labina Mitevska), a young Albanian Muslim refugee accused of murder and on the run from a Christian mob. Kiril breaks his monastic vows (including his vow of silence) and flees the monastery for Kiril's sake, and the two then escape across the Macedonian landscape. Unfortunately, their romance meets a violent end. In the second story, "Faces," a pregnant London photo agent (Katrin Cartlidge) finds herself emotionally divided between her love for her estranged husband Nick and the attraction she feels for her lover, Aleksandar (Rade Šerbedzija), a Pulitzer prize-winning Macedonian war photojournalist. (I will not reveal the chilling surprise in that story.) In the third story, "Pictures," the two previous stories are intertwined, bringing together the silent young monk, the London picture editor, and the disillusioned war photographer. Upon his return to Macedonia after 16 years, Aleksandar discovers his Orthodox Christian village now divided by war, and his once-friendly Albanian neighbors are now considered to be his bitter Muslim enemies. His Albanian love interest, Hana, asks him to take care of her daughter, Zamira. The story then circles back to its beginning as world-weary Aleksandar sets out to find the girl, who is being harbored by his nephew, Kiril. (There is an obvious lesson in the film's circular structure.) Ultimately, Before the Rain is as much about the futility of war as it is about political disillusionment and compassion. "Imagine a culture where a man would rather kill his daughter than allow her to love a man from another culture," Roger Ebert writes about this film, "and you will have an idea of the depth of bitterness in this film, the insane lengths to which men can be driven by belief and prejudice." For those who love intelligent cinema in a world of dumbed-down Hollywood blockbusters, Manchevski's film is also a reminder of all that a film may be. This is one of best films of the 90s, deserving the full Criterion treatment.
The Criterion "Special Edition" of this film features a newly restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Milcho Manchevski; audio commentary featuring Manchevski and film scholar Annette Insdorf; a new video interview with actor Rade Šerbedzija; "Behind the Scenes in Macedonia," a 1993 documentary short about the making of Before the Rain; soundtrack selections, featuring the music of Macedonian band Anastasia; on-set footage, theatrical trailers, and stills galleries of production photos, storyboards, and letters; Manchevski's award-winning "Tennessee" music video; new and improved English subtitle translation; and a new essay by film scholar Ian Christie. Highly recommended.
G. Merritt
Rating: -
I had to watch this film for a foreign film class .. it was by far the best film I've seen. It's an amazing story, with a circular plot. I highly recommend it.
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