Region: Europe Name of Movie: Before the Rain Actual setting: Macedonia Reference: IMBD.com, and professor According to the International Movie Database (www.imdb.com) Milcho Manchevski left his native Macedonia to study film in college in the U.S. Before the Rain is his first full-length feature, which he returned to his native country to make. It is an inspirational tale about the senselessness of war and the fragility of humans and their loves. 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. Before the Rain is about Macedonians and Albanians and the deep-rooted hatred and mistrust that exists. Filmed on location in Macedonia the images captured in the movie show a dry dirt filled valley area filled with jagged mountainous rocks and patches of green. Episode one Words takes place around a monastery high on a cliff overlooking Lake Ohrid. In Words Kiril is a young novice in an Orthodox monastery who cannot help but hide Zamira, a fugitive Albanian girl, from the villagers who want to execute her for murdering a shepherd. The Christian Orthodox men where robed in gowns of black. The men and women mostly seem jobless but most likely they work with agriculture or mining. The climate which is also corresponds with the CIA is of dry sunny days during the summer time. Like the title explains this happens before the rain comes.Faces deals with Anne, in England, a photo editor is becoming more disaffected with her husband Nick while experiencing a difficult, confused relationship with her lover, Aleksandar an award-winning native Macedonian photographer. Manchevski creates a montage to show the city of London and its inhabitants. England an essentially capitalistic economy is one of th...
