Before the Rain (Yağmurdan Önce)

Before the Rain (original title Pred doždot) is a 1994 drama film written and directed by Milčo Mančevski. A co-production between North Macedonia, France and the United Kingdom, it was the director's feature debut and the first film made in North Macedonia after independence. The 113-minute film features an original score by the Macedonian band Anastasia.

Set against the political turmoil surrounding the Bosnian War, the film interweaves three stories that ultimately converge: in "Words," a young Orthodox monk under a vow of silence shelters an Albanian girl fleeing armed gangs in a monastery; "Faces" follows a London photo editor torn between her marriage and a war photographer; and "Photographs" returns to a Macedonia divided along ethnic lines. Through its cyclical structure the film questions the senselessness of violence. It won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and became the first Macedonian film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.