The circularity of violence seen in a story that circles on itself. In Macedonia, during the war in Bosnia, Christians hunt an ethnic Albanian girl who may have murdered one of their own. A young monk who's taken a vow of silence offers her protection. In London, a photographic editor who's pregnant needs to talk it out with her estranged husband and chooses a toney restaurant.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.8/10
IMDb: 7.8/10
Letterboxd: 3.86/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
TMDB: 7.4/10
Director
Milcho Manchevski
Production
British Screen Productions, PolyGram Audiovisuel, Vardar Film, Ministerstvo za kultura na Republika Makedonija, Noé Productions, AIM Group
Cast
Katrin Cartlidge, Rade Šerbedžija, Grégoire Colin, Labina Mitevska, Phyllida Law, Silvija Stojanovska, Jay Villiers, Josif Josifovski, Kiril Ristoski, Petar Mirčevski, Ilko Stefanovski, Katerina Kocevska, Abdurrahman Shala, Vladimir Jacev, Peter Needham, Rod Woodruff, Meto Jovanovski, Mladen Krstevski, Džemail Maksut, Milica Stojanova
Curator Review
Verdict
A formally ambitious, emotionally bruising war drama that uses a fractured structure to show how ethnic hatred and private grief feed each other. Its symbolism and circular narrative can feel demanding, but the payoff is powerful and memorable.
Best for
Viewers who like non-linear, essay-like storytelling
Fans of politically charged European art cinema
People drawn to war films focused on civilians rather than battle
Viewers interested in themes of ethnic conflict, fate, and moral paralysis
Skip if
You want a straightforward, chronological plot
You prefer action-heavy war movies
You dislike symbolic or elliptical filmmaking
You want a warm or uplifting ending
Overview
Before the Rain is one of those films that feels less like a plot than a pattern: grief, revenge, and prejudice repeating across different lives and places. The three-part structure gives it a haunting, circular logic, and the film’s strongest idea is that violence rarely begins where we think it does. It spreads through language, memory, and fear.
Worth noting
Milcho Manchevski’s debut is especially effective when it stays close to ordinary people caught inside history. The rural sections have the most force, but the London material broadens the film’s argument, showing how conflict and emotional estrangement echo far beyond the battlefield. The photography and pacing create a mood of dread that never quite lifts.
Bottom line
This is not a film that explains itself neatly, and that is part of its power. It asks for patience, then rewards it with a tragic sense of inevitability. If you respond to war cinema that is poetic, politically alert, and structurally daring, this is essential viewing.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Mario Melendez (4★) · 97 likes
It is thanks to a close friend who owns a physical copy in DVD format of Criterion Collection the reason why until now and after several years I have seen til now Before the Rain, in my time of post-adolescence when I started collecting films of this distributor I always wanted to get a copy of it but instead I always opted to buy others because they attracted my attention, but well, it is never too late to see it… more It is thanks to a close friend who owns a physical copy in DVD format of Criterion Collection the reason why until now and after several years I have seen til now Before the Rain, in my time of post-adolescence when I started collecting films of this distributor I always wanted to get a copy of it but instead I always opted to buy others because they attracted my attention, but well, it is never too late to see it… more
Sudhakar Kumar (5★) · 92 likes
It contains three interconnected stories that come together in the end, echoing the memorable line of the film, “Time never dies. The circle is never round”, and you leave the film shaken and impressed.
It is about hate, how hate leads into destruction of human lives for no reason, and how hate only leads to further violence and conflict. Manchevski paints a grim picture of how war ruins the lives of ordinary people more than anybody's. The film is as rich in symbols as in narrative.
Before the Rain is an all-around excellent film that should be celebrated more and should be seen by more.
Dialogize This (4.5★) · 71 likes
Before the Rain features an impossible narrative: it's cyclical, fragmented, illogical, and, in a sense, inevitable. Trying to piece it together leads to all sorts of dead ends. And yet, each new dead end leads to a new reading - some new way of seeing the war experience from those on the inside and the outside. How can we claim to know anything about it? Any totalizing narrative falls short. Any linear narrative is too neat. Any knowledge of what… more Before the Rain features an impossible narrative: it's cyclical, fragmented, illogical, and, in a sense, inevitable. Trying to piece it together leads to all sorts of dead ends. And yet, each new dead end leads to a new reading - some new way of seeing the war experience from those on the inside and the outside. How can we claim to know anything about it? Any totalizing narrative falls short. Any linear narrative is too neat. Any knowledge of what… more
Sofia (4.5★) · 40 likes
Part I : Words.
I nearly took a vow of silence like you. But this heavenly beauty merits words. A young monk shackled by spiritual duty, striving for salvation in the crux of political turmoil, despairing over a haunted love for an Albanian fugitive accused of murder. Theirs is a tale unravelling in a fragmented land, where hostility and heartache are caught in a perpetual struggle, where love and war reveal gaps and chasms both in the psyche and the… more
Jackie (4.5★) · 30 likes
“but this heavenly beauty merits words.”
the first Macedonian film to be nominated for an Academy Award, Milcho Manchevski’s debut film (!) Before the Rain paints a picture of hate and its devastating effects. told in a non-linear format, the film is divided into three interconnected segments: Words, Faces, & Pictures — all three represent a common purpose of conveying a sense of hostility and uncomfortability, done to evoke a loss of innocence and hope for this world.
Manchevski portrays a… more
2001 · Action, History, War · 1h 38m · R · Curator 8.2/10 (66.1K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, MGM Plus, Philo, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A darkly ironic Balkan war story that mixes absurdity, tragedy, and political stalemate.
A chilling study of how cruelty and repression reproduce themselves across generations.
Topics
war drama, art-house cinema, nonlinear narrative, Balkan conflict, political tragedy, ethnic tension, symbolic storytelling, somber mood, 1990s European cinema