2 In part two, Faces, Anne (Katrin Cartlidge) is a London photo deitor who is torn between two men - Nick (Jay Villiers), her estranged husband for whom she feels little passion, and Aleksander (Rade Serbedzija), a passionate, wildly quixotic Pulitzer Prize-winning war photographer. Anne's profound personal crisis is overtaken by tragedy when a conflict unexpectedly erupts in a London restaurant.

3 Part three, Pictures, finds Aleksander leaving his hectic life in London to return to his childhood village in Macedonia. But things have changed dramatically in the years since he left and the violence he has witnessed as a frontline photographer has come home, turning neighbors into enemies. When his childhood love from a neighboring village seeks his help to protect her daughter, Aleksander is thrust into an ethnic conflict which has tragic consequences.

One of the best-known actors in the former Yugoslavia, Rade Serbedzija won the role of Aleksander. the quixotic war photographer returning home to Macedonia in search of peace and reason. Serbian by birth, Serbedzija has lived in exile from his native Croatia for the past few years, leaving Belgrade after reported threats on his life. "As an artist, as someone well-known, I had to speak out against nationalism, I had to speak out against war." And, speak he did: if you know the language, you can read the "sworn deposition" against the madness of nationalism and war by this great actor and very cool man. On top of that he is a movie star: see him in The Saint.

Katrin Cartlidge plays the role of Anne, the English photo editor torn between her love for two very different men. "She very much wants to be looked after and to be loved on a stable basis but, at the same time, she wants to fly," notes Cartlidge. "She is torn between two sides of herself represented in some way by these two men: her husband, who represents warmth and security, and a war photographer who is unpredictable and dangerous. I was attracted to a character with those dilemmas."

The filmmakers were fortunate to have one of the hottest, young French stars in the role of Kiril, the young monk who has taken a vow of silence. Gregoire Colin, who drew critical and audience acclaim in Agnieska Holland's "Olivier, Olivier", was drawn to the character, he explains: "Kiril is enigmatic, and because of his choice of silence, we can never really discover who he is. He wants to be a hero. He does not see or feel the political problems but has a romantic notion about the conflict."

Making her film debut in Before the Rain as Zamira, the young Albanian girl, is eighteen year-old Labina Mitevska. She was discovered by Manchevski at an open casting call in Macedonia, which she attended only to accompany a friend. She researched her role by living with Albanian families both in Macedonia and in Serbia, as well as spending time with an Albanian girl of her own age. Of her character, she notes, "Zamira is innocent, on the brink between childhood and womanhood, yet her feelings are very clear. She resists the typical Muslim life, yet to go against it is to fight her own family."