Before the Rain (1994) Criterion NTSC DVD9

PART 1: WORDS. A young Macedonian priest under a vow of silence (Gregoire Colin) tries to hide the teenage Muslim girl Zamira (Labina Mitevska) from Christian gunmen seeking to avenge the death of a shepherd. PART 2: FACES. London photo editor Anne (Katrin Cartlidge of Naked (1993)) is encouraged by her mother to reconcile with her husband Nick (Naked (1993)), but gets caught with her boyfriend Aleksander, a native Macedonian and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer (Rade Serbedzija: Manifesto (1988), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Memento (2000)). At a restaurant, Nick is overjoyed to hear that Anne is pregnant, but she tells him that she wants a divorce. A problem with a waiter, apparently a Macedonian immigrant, intrudes on their personal pain. PART 3: PICTURES. Aleksander returns to Macedonia after 14 years and finds his village split by feuds between Macedonian Christians and Albanian Muslims. He can't see his old girlfriend Hana (Silvija Stojanovska), a Muslim, because members of her family are obsessed with killing Christians. When a shepherd is murdered with a pitchfork, Hana asks Aleksander to protect her daughter, Zamira. Aleksander must oppose his own kin to try and shield the terrorized captive girl.