Manchevski Returns to Tokyo With a Film on Sibling Love and Inequality

Milcho Manchevski’s eighth feature, “Sister Brother Manhole Cover,” had its world premiere as part of the Tokyo International Film Festival’s competition on October 30. The dark comedy follows Malina and Viktor, siblings living on the margins of North Macedonian society who steal bronze statues and manhole covers for scrap. After Viktor is badly injured during a theft, the pair flee and take refuge with the wealthy, blind mother of a corrupt doctor.

Manchevski said the story grew from his interest in the intense bond between a sister and brother, as well as traditional Macedonian songs about sibling devotion. He also wanted to explore wealth inequality without turning the film into a lecture. The siblings commit crimes, he said, but he wanted to portray their contradictions rather than reduce them to victims or moral examples.

The director described poverty as painful and shaped by political circumstances, not something to romanticize. In the film, the stolen statues represent ideals society claims to honor while leaving people behind; missing manhole covers expose a more immediate danger beneath everyday life.

Manchevski also criticized what he sees as an industry preference for films built around overt messages and judgments of a filmmaker’s background, rather than the work itself. He said growing up under communism made him alert to censorship in different forms.

He said the film was held up for years after he reported alleged corruption at North Macedonia’s Film Agency in 2020 and 2022. Manchevski said he secured favorable judgments in two legal disputes involving the agency, and state oversight bodies supported his account. After the blockage lifted, he made this feature alongside “Good People,” a documentary about people affected by the Kocani nightclub fire.

Manchevski’s Film Puts Poverty and Political Retaliation on Screen

Milcho Manchevski’s “Sister Brother Manhole Cover,” which premiered in the Tokyo competition on October 30, puts people pushed to society’s edges at the center of a story about survival. Its siblings, Malina and Viktor, steal bronze statues and manhole covers to sell for scrap; after Viktor is seriously injured, they flee and find shelter with a wealthy, blind woman.

Manchevski says the film examines the widening gulf between those with wealth and those without it. He rejects portrayals that make poverty picturesque or suggest people can escape it through courage alone, arguing that the conditions shaping the siblings’ lives are political. The stolen statues sharpen that critique: society preserves symbols of its ideals while people in need are left to fend for themselves.

The director also says alleged corruption at the North Macedonian Film Agency led to retaliation, orchestrated media attacks, and criminal charges, delaying the project for years. He says two court rulings went in his favor in his dispute with the agency and that state oversight bodies confirmed his account. His experience, he argues, points to the danger of political interference in artists’ ability to work.

The film’s arrival in Tokyo is therefore more than a festival return. It brings a story about inequality alongside a director’s account of how institutional power can constrain creative work. Manchevski made the feature after the blockade lifted, alongside a documentary about people affected by the Kocani nightclub fire.

Manchevski Warns Against Turning Cinema Into Political Pamphlets

Milcho Manchevski’s “Sister Brother Manhole Cover,” premiering in Tokyo competition on October 30, makes the case for films that trust audiences to think for themselves. The dark comedy follows siblings who steal bronze statues and manhole covers, then flee after a botched job leaves the brother badly hurt. Its story moves between danger, humor and tenderness rather than following a fixed genre formula.

Manchevski said he is wary of cinema that puts moral messaging ahead of deeper artistic work. He also objected to judging films by the filmmaker’s background or political context instead of the film itself. For him, art should open a world and leave room for discussion, not close it down with a prescribed conclusion.

The director’s own experience with political pressure informs his concern about censorship. He says the film was stalled for years after he reported alleged corruption at North Macedonia’s Film Agency, and that he faced harassment and legal proceedings. He says he won two cases against the agency and that state oversight bodies supported his account. He has cautioned against treating his case as representative of every Macedonian filmmaker, while arguing that political barriers to work indicate a dysfunctional society.

Manchevski’s critique reaches beyond government: he also blames film funds and festivals for favoring safer, message-led work. “Sister Brother Manhole Cover” instead mixes social concerns with character, satire and beauty, the qualities he fears contemporary cinema is losing.