Review of "Before the Rain"

In the film “Before the Rain”, ethnic conflict is portrayed through the lens of a variety of characters. The film is separated into three segments: Words, Faces, and Pictures. In Words, a young Macedonian Christian monk is confronted with the choice of protecting a condemned Albanian Muslim girl from execution. After being expelled from the Monastery, the former monk leaves with his Albanian friend/love to escape the chaos of a forbidden existence. In the end, the girl is discovered and killed by her own brother. As John Simon points out in “Wild and Wilder”, this murder is an unmistaken symbol for the fraternal conflict consuming this land.
In Faces, a young British professional is caught between appeasing her Macedonian lover and making amends with her estranged husband. As she and her husband meet at a nice restaurant for dinner, a clash turned violent separates her and her husband forever. Two foreign background gentlemen dispute over unknown conversation. The tensions mount in their Slavic tongue ending with shots fired throughout the restaurant killing and wounding many. This scene perhaps is an interesting reflection of the western world. To the western world, the Balkan conflict was a consistent background noise, a small disturbance in a nice restaurant. The conflict exploded to the point where, in a new interconnected society, events were not as easy to ignore. Manchevski’s dinner portrayal leads one to believe that in recognition of war, no one should be left unscathed.

Finally in Pictures, the Macedonian lover described in Faces returns as the main character in the film. Alexander, finds himself caught between what he remembers of his former Macedonia, what it has become, and what it will be if the surmounting conflict continues. Alexander attempts to relive his past by visiting a former love interest. Unfortunately his former love interest is set behind an almost visible line of ethnic and religious divide. In the end, Alexander attempts to right his people’s wrongs by saving the daughter of his former love. Alexander gets himself killed in the process by his own family member – a repeat of irrational fraternal discord. Alexander’s death marks the beginning of the elusive rainy season. Rain on a dry land typically symbolizes change – for the better. In the case of “Before the Rain”, the rainy season could symbolize only be the beginning of a new, greater cycle of bloodshed. Centuries of such cycles should prove this to be true.