Obviously most people are enthralled with this movie. I wasn't. The music was good but the cinematography was lacking - too many shots shown over again. I watch a lot of foreign movies and, I guess, unfortunately had just watched "A Very Long Engagement" with cinematography that excelled. I suppose the message in Before The Rain was that time may not have been circular but it certainly comes back onto itself. The feeling I had was that the writer wanted to paint this little universe, which always repeated itself. Was this plot anything to do with the reality we all live in? No! We live in a linear reality and we don't see pictures of things that haven't happened yet. I thought it was more than depressing that the cycle the writer chose was punctuated with fusillades of gunfire from start to end. I thought "Dark Country" made better use of an enclosed circular universe.
I also found the likelihood that someone could return to his old home after 16 years false, especially with the tribality and backwardness of the inhabitants which he had outgrown shortly after leaving. I have been traveling for 7 years and things are different. I could not go back to what was and be a part of those I knew. So the idea that Rade, world-wise traveler thought he could just enter his old stomping grounds did not make sense. He would have had more sense, particularly when he was met by a gun-toting guard. When he first arrived he saw his house had been abandoned so how could he not understand his old life had also been abandoned?
I also found the likelihood that someone could return to his old home after 16 years false, especially with the tribality and backwardness of the inhabitants which he had outgrown shortly after leaving. I have been traveling for 7 years and things are different. I could not go back to what was and be a part of those I knew. So the idea that Rade, world-wise traveler thought he could just enter his old stomping grounds did not make sense. He would have had more sense, particularly when he was met by a gun-toting guard. When he first arrived he saw his house had been abandoned so how could he not understand his old life had also been abandoned?