Sin forever

Rogers 2022-01-16 08:02:38

Just finished watching "A Rainstorm Is Coming", this is Kmanchevsky's debut work. In this film, he used sharp film language to tell the killings, murders, racial conflicts, and poverty and struggles that occurred in Macedonia day after day. With this film, he won worldwide honors, such as Oscar nomination for best foreign language film, Venice Golden Lion Award and so on.

Macedonia is located on the Balkan Peninsula. This is an embarrassing republic, and the international community hasn't said clearly about his attributes. Some countries recognize his sovereignty and independence, while more stubbornly believe that it is just a region of Macedonia. There are many historical problems in this area, coupled with the disputes between sovereignty and territory, it is full of vendettas, wars, and sufferings throughout the year.

And here is the hometown of Kmanchevsky.

As an adult, Kmanchevsky focused his lens on this land and shot a movie called "A Rainstorm Is Coming". The movie consists of three parts: speech, face, and photo. These are three independent but connected stories, each of which contains the past and the future, forming an interlocking circle. In these three circles, the violence and deaths of Macedonian change have been filled.

At the beginning of the film, there was a beautiful landscape that fits all the tourists' imagination of the Balkan Peninsula. Under the blue sky, the land is desolate and vast, and the plants are abundant. People live in wooden and stone houses, grow vegetables, herd sheep, and thrive. . In the shadow of the veil, the woman came and went cautiously, the children screamed, everything was just right, almost like a peach blossom garden.

However, as the camera continued to change, we began to see other things in the bright sunlight: three-year-old children picked up machine guns, people were convicted and shot innocent people at will, restaurants were bloodbathed out of provocation, and welcoming gifts to strangers were guns. Control, threats and repeated investigations, as well as a hostile sentence "I will kill him", racial hatred never ceases, inter-religious conflicts have been staged all the time, everyone is in danger, and the most frightening thing is love The annihilation of the murderer and the deceased were originally relatives, fathers, daughters, brothers, friends, neighbors, clansmen...They called "sister" and "brother" while pulling the trigger.

In the three interlocking stories, the protagonists are different, but the sins are similar. The unbearable people tried to escape and seek to a peaceful and prosperous pure land. However, is there such a place in the world?

In the Balkans, the young priest said to Samina: “Let’s go to London to find Uncle Alexander. No one can catch you there. It’s the safest place.” In London, Alexander said to Annie: “Let’s go back to Macedonia. It’s safe there.” But the two places mentioned, without exception, were carrying out similar terrorist attacks. Anne's husband was shot in London, and Alexander was killed by her younger brother after returning to Macedonia.

The weak are hidden everywhere, and violence is everywhere.

"When the flocks of birds fly over the hazy sky, people are silent. My blood is painful because of waiting." Macedonia, how can we save your cruelty and wildness?

Is it religion, the legal system, or love, speech, or art?

When the chased Samina hid in an Orthodox church, she was lucky enough to receive the love and protection of the young priest, but the bishop finally discovered the secret and said angrily to the priest, "We deny your qualifications as a monk, and deny you. The Christian name". They were driven out of the house and exiled to the dangerous and violent jungle. As we expected, Samina died tragically at the hands of her relatives. The love preached by religion, the innate conscience of the individual, becomes powerless in the face of bottomless violence.

Samina and Alexander walked out of the hut, but Alexander's brother blocked the way. Alexander said, "She's still just a child."

"She killed my brother."

"How do you know? There are polices who have laws that can be judged by them."

"You have been away for too long, and you don't understand the current situation. . You should take care of yourself.” The
legal system is like a fiction, and the law of the jungle is the only law of survival here.
"That's why I came here. If you allow you to do this, I will live forever."

Alexander tried to make up for the lack of legality in this land with his conscience. However, his salvation was a drop in the bucket, and in the end even himself fell into a situation where he was invincible.

The young priest made a dumb wish, and he stopped talking. Later, because of love, he spoke again. The first word he uttered was "thank you"; and the last word was "sorry". However, the answer to this love of life and death is still death. When Samena returned to the center of the Algerians and back to her relatives, her grandfather scolded her as a bitch and slapped her with blood. In the fierce battle, she used love to appeal for herself: "He loves me, he loves me!"

But love became so insignificant at this time, and so did her words. Her brother grabbed the machine gun and fired frantically at the running sister. When Samina was dying, the priest squatted down beside her, his eyes widened, fearful, naïve, and sad. Samina said: "Don't talk!"

So, what about art?

While in Macedonia, Alexander wrote to Annie. He said: "Last week I told you that I killed someone. I dealt with a soldier, and I complained to him that I didn’t find any exciting reports, and he said it’s okay. , And then took the prisoner out of the team and killed him with a single shot..." This made me tremble. Is art saving suffering, or is it encouraging and consuming it?

I happened to read Shi Tiesheng’s book yesterday and saw that he also mentioned similar doubts in "A Human Form Blank", "The real hardship of some people has become the joy of others, the despair and prayers of an era have changed. It has become a dashing text dispatch of another era..."

If art has a curious appetite, watching and recording around sins, but not commenting on killings, then it will not only fail to eliminate violence and save the world, but on the contrary. Make your own existence a sin itself. As Alexander reflected, "I was on the other side, and my camera killed people."

In the film, he tore up the photos and was no longer silent. He chose to be present and participate. He devoted himself to a horrible situation. Rescue-leave with the innocent Samina. But in front of the stupid and violent Macedonians, his salvation was tantamount to betrayal. In the end, Alexander died and fell under the guns of his younger brother, amidst the prejudice and hatred of the people.

Regardless of love, religion or art, every attempt to save violence has failed. Then, heavy rain is bound to come.

"It's going to rain."

When Alexander finished saying this, rain fell on his body pierced by the bullet, between the muzzle of the machine gun held by his tribe, and the magnificent and barren land of Macedonia. In such rain water, the flame of hatred temporarily extinguished, and Alexander's relatives and friends stood beside his body, forgetting to chase the fugitive Samina.

However, does the extinguished flame no longer burn?

On the next sunny day, in the golden sun, Macedonian children lit up a circle of flames and killed innocent turtles with bullets. In the sound of the explosion, the team chasing Samina approached fiercely. They carried machine guns and searched for her all over the world, "I'm going to cut her throat."

In this movie, a sentence appeared repeatedly. In other words, “Time will last forever, and the circle will no longer.” I think, if the rule of law, faith, love, art, speech, and conscience are absent one after another, and people’s ability to respect, love, and reflect one after another is lost, then in this violent world without light , The tragic deaths of innocents, inter-ethnic vendettas, and disputes between Islam and Orthodox churches will not be truly extinguished by the rain of sacrifice. They will continue to multiply under different names, endlessly circulating like time, endlessly.


View more about Before the Rain reviews

Extended Reading
  • Arturo 2022-03-27 09:01:18

    The world still has so much to learn. From high school to now, I finally watched this movie. weight. The director is a professor at NYU. Time never dies. The Circle is not round.

  • Lottie 2022-03-28 09:01:11

    Kaoru revealed that the inspiration for reincarnation in "Vampire Girl" came from this film. Sure enough, the three stories are one ring. The heroine of the first short story is very cute, just like a boy. This film talks about ethnic issues, but it is very subtle. The female protagonist killed the hostile villagers and ran away. She met the male protagonist and fell in love with each other, but she died immediately. The film returns to the previous love history of another male protagonist. Failure to return to hometown leads to the death of the heroine...

Before the Rain quotes

  • Father Marko: I wanted to take a vow of silence, like you. But this heavenly beauty merits words.

  • Aleksander: With a shriek, birds flee across the black sky, people are silent, my blood aches from waiting.