‘Before the Rain’ Director Milcho Manchevski on Tokyo Competition Title ‘Sister Brother Manhole Cover,’ Whistleblowing and the ‘Death of Beauty’ in Cinema

Oct 31, 2026 3:21pm PT ‘Before the Rain’ Director Milcho Manchevski on Tokyo Competition Title ‘Sister Brother Manhole Cover,’ Whistleblowing and the ‘Death of Beauty’ in Cinema

By Naman Ramachandran

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Naman Ramachandran

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Milcho Manchevski, the North Macedonian director whose 1994 debut “Before the Rain” won Venice’s Golden Lion and earned an Oscar nomination, is back in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival with “Sister Brother Manhole Cover,” a project stalled for years after he accused his country’s film agency of corruption.

The dark comedy centers on Malina and Viktor, a sister and brother getting by on the fringes of post-Communist Macedonia by pilfering busts of national heroes cast in bronze, along with manhole covers, and selling off the metal. When a job goes wrong and Viktor is seriously hurt, Malina cuts a deal with a crooked doctor. The siblings end up on the run, and eventually take shelter with the doctor’s wealthy mother, Todora, who is blind.

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