30 August 2001

"Dust" - Macedonia between the present and the past

VENEZIA (Reuters) - Last evening, the director Milcho Manchevki returned to the Venice Festival with "Dust", a movie about brotherhood, revenge and the capability to tell itself.

He has already won the Golden Lion in 1994, with the movie "Before the Rain". Yesterday, he had the honour of opening the 58th Festival.

Half of the story takes place in modern America, the other half in Macedonia at the beginning of the 20th century. It is the story of two brothers -- played by Joseph Fiennes and David Wenham -- who follow each other to kill each other, in love with the the same woman. It is also a story of hate, revenge and battle.

"But the movie is not about what happens nowadays in Macedonia", explains the director. "It was not my intention to discuss the current political situation. The movie was written several years before".

The producer, Chris Auty, confirms this while explaining that part of the movie was shot in 1999. "It saddens us that the was in Servia hasn't allowed us to start it earlier. We finished it last year, and it's ironic to think that this year we wouldn't have been able to make it. We were in a quiet zone in the middle of a tempest".

For the actors, it was a very touching set.

"The first time I arrived in Skopje", explains Anne Brochet, "I felt something very particular, which helped me to add something instinctive to the movie, as opposed to something researched".

"I spent a wonderful couple of months in Macedonia", says David Wenham. "I felt a big tension among the people, but this hasn't influenced me. What has influenced me the most were the natural facts: the heat and the bees."

According to Manchevski, "Dust" is a "cubist" movie about memory and time, because it is made of several stories which confuse past and present. "I was inspired to make this movie when I realised that the elements of the Revolution in Macedonia about 100 years ago were very similar to the wild West or the Mexican revolution". Today he admitted himself that he grew up watching the westerns on television, although he sees "Dust" as a tribute to Martin Scorsese or Milos Forman rather than to John Wayne or Clint Eastwood.