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....Before
the rain is not just a beautiful film that focuses on human conflicts
and love relationships made impossible due to the radicalism and bellicose
atmosphere which has spread through the Balkans during the last three
years. Divided into three different stories, Milcho Manchevski's first
feature-length film also has a particular aesthetical approach. The structure
of Before the rain relies essentially on an aesthetics of paradox. Instead
of looking for logical coherence, Manchevski emphasizes contradiction
and strangeness.
....Words,
Faces and Photos are indeed very simple episodes in themselves, and quite
similar between each other, the script is basically the same for all of
them: the announcement and the expectation of the rain, the apearent casuality
of the meetings and the disagreements an, finally, the tragedy - which
is symbolized by the rain. Together, they form an allegorical circle:
each one can be considered the first, the second or the last in relation
to the other two. The circle, however, is not perfect, "not round",
because the stories present in a similar - not identical - way the same
kind of facts. In spite of being linked, the parts also remain independent.
Logically speaking, each part only makes sense when isolated. The group,
that means, the circle as a whole is contradictory.
....The
contradictions regard the sequence of the facts when we try to establish
a correct order between the episodes. The question is that there is no
"correct" order of the episodes in Before the rain. All of the
three orders are as possible as they are impossible, depending on the
way one looks at them. Manchevski does not stop inverting the positions
of before and after, establishing, therefore, a paradoxal temporality.
Manchevski conceives time as a circular entity, without beginning or end,
in such a way that one cannot know how long it takes from one fact to
another. As a matter of fact, it is not possible to find out if any time
passes at all: the end of Photos corresponds to the beginning of Words
as a literal repetition and an indication of the circle.
....These
are the orders:
....I.
Words, Faces, Photos
....In
Words, the young Macedonian orthodox monk Kiril Kirkov mentions the possibility
of escaping with the Albanese Muslim Zamira to London, where they could
stay with his uncle Aleksander. In Faces, Kiril makes a telephone call
to Aleksander, without succeeding in localizing him. In Photos, Anne goes
to the Macedonian small village in order to meet his lover Aleksander
Kirkov, after their sudden separation in Faces. All these connections
justify the sequence.
....On
the other hand, we also have signals that make this order absurd. Aleksander's
funeral takes place in Words, but he is alive in Faces. In this story,
we have Zamira's death confirmed by photographs. If that is true, how
can she be alive in Photos?
....II.
Faces, Photos, Words
....Photos
comes after Words, since the things that happen to Aleksander in the village
confirm his decision of abandoning the career as photographer, which was
taken in Faces. The end of Photos is identical to the beginning of Words.
....This
order can also be considered contradictory. The monastery is in peace
in Photos; nevertheless, Faces indicates, through the mentioned photographs,
that Kiril has already left the place. Aleksander dies in Photos and in
buried in Words, but in this story his nephew says he is alive.
....III.
Photos, Words, Faces
....Zamira's
love affair with Aleksander's cousin and persecution corroborates Photos
coming before Words. Faces follows this story because of Kiril's telephone
call and the photographs.
....More
contradictions can be found: It definitely rains in Photos, on the other
hand, in Words, people are still waiting for the rain. If Aleksander appears
dead in Words, he could not be alive in Faces... but he is.
....It
is important to point out that the very titles of the episodes are denied
by their respective content. Words is indeed an apology of silence, not
withstanding the sentence of the old priest, referred to the idyllic Macedonian
landscape: "This beauty should be lauded with words".
....According
to Zamira's last gestures, we presume that Kiril will return to the vote
of silence. In Faces, Manchevski shows how deformed human features can
become. Madonna's face on a photo is deformed by a blur of spilled coffee.
This event looks like an anticipation of the appearance of Nick's face
at the moment of his death. Photos pictures the refuse of the profession
by the famous photographer Aleksander Kirkov. In Bosnia, his camera "killed
a man", as a result of his obsession in obtaining "scenes of
action". So great is the contempt towards his Pulitzer Prize, that
he utilizes the book written in his honor as a mere support for the leg
of the table in his old house.
...."Eye
by eye", exposes the energical Mitre in Words, who justifies his
desire of revenge based on 500 years of Muslim control of the region.
In the small Macedonian village, as well as for the Macedonian Catholics
and for the Muslim Albaneses, the accumulated hate has just reached its
point of ebullition. The "center" of the circle that symbolizes
Before the rain is located in the middle of Faces; it is a sentence spoken
by Aleksander, which works as an authentical historical portrait of the
conflict Balkans: "War is the rule, peace is an exception".
The sentence is central, equidistant from the points of the circular surface,
not only in the sense of being legitimate to all the main facts showed
in the film, but also because these facts converge towards it.
....Before
the rain is tuned to the sounds of disharmony, absurdity and pain - typical
traces of the war. Peace is a mere exception. This becomes clear through
the scenes of semi-anecdotal neutrality of the UN soldiers, restrict to
crossing the disputed areas in their white cars, and "lending themselves
only to the gathering of the corpses of those who die in the conflicts",
as the village's doctor says.
....The
rain is an allegory of the tragedy. In all the stories, the tragical denouement
is announced, expected and consummated. "Flies are already biting;
it seems that it will rain; it is raining already over there", reveals
the old priest, that "had almost taken the vote of silence",
to the young monk Kiril Kirkov. He refers to the rain that marks Aleksander's
death, as well as the end of Photos and the beginning of Words. The same
painful spectacle will happen again, because time cannot help circulating.
In the paradoxal world of Before the rain, created and moved through the
calamities that distinguish human existence, there is only one postulate
that remains standing: it is necessary to rain.
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