Directed by Milcho Manchevski • 1994 • Republic of Macedonia
Starring Grégoire Colin, Katrin Cartlidge, Rade Šerbedžija

The first film made in the newly independent Republic of Macedonia, Milcho Manchevski’s BEFORE THE RAIN crosscuts the stories of an orthodox Christian monk (Grégoire Colin), a British photo agent (Katrin Cartlidge), and a native Macedonian war photographer (Rade Šerbedžija) to paint a portrait of simmering ethnic and religious hatred about to reach its boiling point. Made during the strife of the war-torn Balkan states in the nineties, this gripping triptych of love and violence is also a timeless evocation of the loss of pastoral innocence, and remains one of recent cinema’s most powerful laments on the futility of war.