This is eventually gonna be a review of the 1994 film, Before the Rain; but, there's a bit of framing to be done before I dive into it.
Really, I just kinda stumbled upon it. I hadn't heard of the film until the day before yesterday. When the prisoner swap happened, it was mentioned that the "merchant of death" was an inspiration for the film Lord of War (which is a good movie, by the way). I just looked up Lord of War casually, and Roger Ebert's review came up. During Ebert's review, he mentioned Before the Rain. I looked it up. The only place I could find it was on Criterion. I had the choice of buying a $30 DVD, or signing up for a trial of the Criterion Channel.
I opted for the latter. Directly after watching Before the Rain, I bought a year's subscription to Criterion and cancelled my Netflix. So, for the foreseeable future, if anyone wants to Netflix and chill with me, we'll have to do Criterion and chill.
Anyway, it doesn't surprise me that Before the Rain was mentioned in Ebert's review of Lord of War. It's a film about conflict in North Macedonia. It was directed by Milcho Manchevski, who is from the area, and was able to imbue the film with his personal knowledge and relationship with the region. The film tells three separate stories, in three separate parts -- basically, if you can imagine the film Babble as a good movie, it might look like Before the Rain.
The three stories are tied together by the experiences of a photographer, native to the region, played by Rade Šerbedžija. Still, this character's role was ancillary for most of the film. We're first introduced to a monk, who has taken a vow of silence, living in an area where the civil war was slowly creeping in. He ends up harboring a young, Albanian, Muslim girl who allegedly killed a Christian. The events, and the conflicts move on from there, and the plot, wrote quiet literally comes full circle.
In fact, there's a repeated line in the movie, "The circle isn't round." In a way, it can be argued that the motif is on the nose; but, this concept is built into the bones of the film. The nonlinear, circular structure of the film isn't just a gimmick, it's the whole point of the film.
It was pointed out by Ebert, way back in 1994, that the average movie goer could be forgiven for being ignorant of the conflict, and the history. I was only nine-years-old when the film was released; so, I guess that I can be forgiven for my limited knowledge of the history of the conflict. Still, I suppose I know enough that I was able to catch some of the subtle, emotional moments.
The idea of the circle not being round is Manchevski's way of extending the simple narrative of the film to show a bigger picture of a century's-old conflict. The film's structure needed to be timeless. It needed to feel like you're lost in what you're seeing. When you see the shocking acts of violence, and the moments when hatred for the enemy becomes more important than love for one's family, you need to understand that this is nothing new. That's where the film truly shines.
Before the Rain is an art film about war. Ebert was right that it's about passions replacing ideas.
Needless to say, I recommend the film. Sadly, to my knowledge, it's only on Criterion. That said, I absolutely think that this film was worth my switch from Netflix to Criterion.