I recently saw this at the 2008 Palm Springs International Film Festival. This was Macedonia's official entry as Best Foreign Language Film to the Academy Awards. First of all, I had to refresh myself geographically to find out exactly where Macedonia is, which is a landlocked Balkan nation that was once part of the Yugoslav Republic and is surrounded by Serbia, Bugaria, Greece and Albania. Set in the nation's capital of Skopje with location shooting in Ohrid this is a beautiful country and a beautiful film. Director/writer Milcho Manchevski, noted for his first two critically acclaimed films and now residing in New York returns to Macedonia to film Shadows, a story about a young doctor, Lazar Perkov (Borce Nacev), who is involved in a life threatening car accident. After a year of rehabilitation and his marriage to Ignjat (Dime Llije) dissolving and living a professional life in the shadow of his successful and dominant mother, Dr. Vera Perkov (Sabina Ajrula), Lazar is visited by a mysterious old woman with a message for him in an old forgotten dialect that he can not decipher. He seeks translation to the message at a university where he meets Menka (Vesna Stanojevska) who is not who she seems. Menka, the old woman and a man with a baby are all from the old village where Lazar's mother was born and are seeking his help to right a wrong carelessly committed by his mother. Nacev and Ajrula are excellent in their roles but the big surprise of the cast is the acting debut of Stanojevska, an exotic beauty in an erotic role who in her day job away from acting is the Harpist with the Macedonian National Opera and Ballet Orchestra. What a great find by Manchevski as Stanojevska lights up the screen and is sure to have an international acting career if she so chooses. Veteran Italian cinematographer Fabio Chianchetti beautifully and masterly photographs. Kiril Spaseski as art director and David Munns as production designer give this film a great look blending the modern with the old. A great music score from Ryan Shore who was at the film's screening for Q&A. Some Tom Waitts music is also featured in the film. This is a fine film and one of my favorites of the 38 films I saw this year at the festival and I would give it a 9.0 out of 10.
