Before the Rain

Before the rain, three ill-fated love stories start and end.

Before the rain, hate spreads and blood is shed. An air of violence condenses in the moutainous Macedonia and fogs places as far as London.

Before the rain, a silent young Christian monk, an Albanian girl on the run, a world-wearied Macedonian war photographer, his widowed Albanian first-love, a London photographic editor, her bourgeois husband, are all linked up.

Some think Before the Rain displays the circularity of hate
and brutality, but it seems to me that it's not even circular. The events in the three stories, when narrated and viewed seperately, are linear; but when put in a circle by the surprising and clever ending of the last story, the events don't make sense any more. As suggested by one of the repeated lines in the movie, 'time never dies; the circle is never round'. With the tiny bits and pieces of clues here and there (e.g. characters of 2nd story appearing in 1st story, photos of events of 1st story shown in the 2nd story, news report of happenings of 3rd story broadcast in 2nd story, etc.) the audience are made to know that none of these stories should precede the other two, but these three stories cannot possibly happen at the same time either. These events simply don't fit in the 'time line' of any shape. Narration becomes illogical. Logic is defeated. Defeated by the absurd repetition and omnipresence of war.

Before the rain, it never rains.
Before the rain, it rains.

Before the rain, a wittily crafted movie of war that will disturb our hypocritical 'peace' of mind.

N.B. During these four days of being alone, I have already watched (or re-watched) four movies. Among them, Before the Rain really struck me with its beauty. To my surprise, I like it even better than the Angelopoulos' latest Weeping Meadow I have always wanted to watch. It's always a wonderful experience to keep watching until you see a great one that you can put into your Favourites list.