Before the Rain director's long-delayed film premieres in Tokyo
Milcho Manchevski's eighth feature, Sister Brother Manhole Cover, had its world premiere in the Competition section of the Tokyo International Film Festival on October 30. Variety reports that the film was stalled for years after Manchevski accused his country's film agency of corruption.
Manchevski is a North Macedonian director best known for Before the Rain, his 1994 debut. That film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and earned an Oscar nomination. He later opened Venice again in 2001 with Dust. His other credits include Shadows, Mothers and Willow, plus an episode of HBO's crime drama The Wire. He splits his time between Macedonia and New York, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The new film is a dark comedy. It follows Malina and Viktor, siblings living on the edges of post-Communist Macedonia. They make a living by stealing bronze busts of national heroes and manhole covers, then selling the metal. The film is set in two movements. The first follows the pair through a hard world, and the second looks at their inner lives.
Things go wrong when a job leaves Viktor seriously hurt. Malina makes a deal with a crooked doctor. The siblings end up on the run and take shelter with the doctor's wealthy mother, Todora, who is blind. Sara Klimoska and Filip Trajkovikj are among the cast, according to the festival's news page.
Manchevski told The Hollywood Reporter that he wanted the film to be about non-erotic love between a sister and a brother. He said he hoped to address the gap between rich and poor through satire and close character study, rather than by lecturing. He also said that message-driven "neo-social realism" has become something film funds and festivals expect, and that he grew up with communism and social realism himself. Variety reports that he drew on traditional Macedonian songs about sisterly love for the story. He also described being blacklisted, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In his conversation with Variety, Manchevski said he mourns what he calls the death of beauty in cinema today.
This is Manchevski's fourth time at the Tokyo festival. His previous feature, Kaymak, played in competition there in 2022. The festival lists the film for screenings on October 30 and November 2.
For anyone tracking festival films, the path here is worth noting. A film can be finished, financed and selected for a major competition, then still wait years for a release. Festivals like Tokyo often become the first public stop for projects like this, before buyers and distributors decide where, and whether, they reach cinemas.
