Milcho Manchevski, the North Macedonian director behind “Before the Rain,” has brought a long-blocked dark comedy to the Tokyo International Film Festival’s competition, and he is blaming a corrupt funding system for the delay.
“Sister Brother Manhole Cover” stalled for years after its financing was secured, Manchevski says. He traces the freeze to his decision to report corruption at his country’s Film Agency, which he says reaches the prime minister’s office. He describes a price for speaking out: political harassment, a media smear campaign and criminal proceedings.
He says the record backs him. By his account, he won two court cases against the agency, and the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption and the State Audit Office confirmed his claims. The Venice Film Festival, Whistleblowing International and Transparency International have supported him.
Manchevski’s debut, “Before the Rain,” won the Golden Lion at Venice in 1994 and earned an Oscar nomination, making him an international name overnight. Tokyo is familiar ground. This marks his fourth visit, and his previous feature, “Kaymak,” competed there in 2022.
The new film follows Malina and Viktor, a sister and brother scraping by on the margins of post-Communist Macedonia. They steal bronze busts of national heroes and manhole covers and sell the metal. A job goes wrong and Viktor is badly hurt, so Malina strikes a deal with a crooked doctor. The siblings end up fugitives and shelter with the doctor’s wealthy, blind mother, Todora.
Manchevski says he wanted to put the bond between brother and sister at the center of a film, a kind of love he finds rarely explored on screen. He refuses to romanticize his characters. “Poverty is not picturesque,” he says, and he did not want the pair to become objects of pity.
His complaints reach beyond his home country. Manchevski argues that many festivals and European film funds have given up on backing daring work, and he calls that ecosystem complicit in “the death of beauty” in contemporary cinema. He still hopes the tide will turn. His next project, “Homecoming,” is a story about regret and forgiveness.
