Mike B
This is a 3 part film depicting events during the complex civil war in what use to be Yugoslavia. The first and third parts are set in the Balkans and for the most part are touching and authentic. A photographer returns to his homeland to witness the fracturing of it into war. This is well depicted in the movie - how communities that use to co-exist peacefully can somehow, through a tortured religious history,group pressure.. . gradually fracture into warring tribes. Another centerpiece of this story is a young girl forced to leave her village to try and save her life. The second part is mostly disconnected from part 1 and 3. The English woman is pregnant and having marital problems, there is a mafia style shoot-up in a bar. It is entirely irrelevant to the themes presented in 1 and 3. Part 2 should have been edited to coalesce with 1 and 3. The only reason for the second installment is to provide a back-drop for the photographer to return, after a long absence, to his native land and witness the fissures developing. Also in part 2 we see photographs of the execution of the fleeing young woman,but at this stage the photographer was already dead!!
walter_moreno
It's one of the best films that I've ever seen. I saw it many times, including the theatre sessions, when it was on screens. Photography, scriptwriting, direction, characters are in such a harmony that makes difficult to tell what is best in this films. The perfection of the text is so that the connections between characters and the film chronology can close in a circle without really closing it. The main sentence "The circle is not round" is both touching and intelligent, revealing the spiral of mankind's stubbornness violence - that never gets to an end - as the essence of the story. So up to date that unreasonable violence still keeps its turn, nowadays: like it happened in London, in the film, and today(10/08), at the airports. The soundtrack by "Anastácia" is also fantastic; and fits well with the atmosphere of the film.
diebadehose
two different stages in europe with one common ground, violence are connected in this movie. but also love don't get missed out in milcho manchevskis "wonderfull" masterpiece. love will be found in sundry figures or implementations always in contrast to hatred, terror and war. one of those movies, whose pictures you will never forget in your live. pictures that melt opposites into one. one example: after years Aleksander comes back to macedonia and finds his parents house destroyed by war. an image full of demolition, chaos, love and boundless romantic, that seek after equal quality in different categories. A MUST!!!
miagy
Before the Rain is an allegory. Before the rain is the air heavier and flies bites and the same before civil war in former Jugoslavia. People starting to show their hidden hate and all are preparing for the war. Old friends become hostiles and the common sense is going to fade away. People are forgetting the value of one's life and young boys are becoming great soldiers with guns in hands. And as a summer storm the war is spreading and thunders warn us about its nearness.It shows the story of world-wide famous photographer who comes back home after many years spent in wars but finds again the war and the same story of man's foolishness. The way how was this movie made in kind of retrospective (in curious way) and marks the metaphorical thought mentioned in the title above (by the mouth of the priest). Next to all these there is shown a pure young love and some religious scenes as well.
AD
