Milcho Manchevski’s Sister Brother Manhole Cover depicts a, well, brother and sister Malina and Viktor (Sara Klimoska, Filip Trajkovikj). Malina does everything for Viktor, her big brother who, despite his special needs, wants to play football like his idol Ronaldo. They murder Malina’s rapist, steal his car, and sell that car to buyer ‘Brad Pitt’. Since the cops catch that fellow North Macedonian criminal, their only place of refuge is Malina’s rapist / victim’s house where that man’s mother Todora (Sonja Mihajlova) lives, and hiding takes a toll on Malina’s well being.

This is a hybrid of comedy and drama with its share of dream sequences, some of them are hopeful despite cornering themselves in. Sometimes, the film shows us Viktor’s fantasies of becoming a football star and it’s unclear which Ronaldo he wants to emulate. Most of the dreams in Sister Brother Manhole Cover, though, are nightmares that haunt Malina, like the titular manhole cover on her. There’s an air of ambiguity within those nightmares, as if condemning a woman who does bad things with less consideration for her. Some of these nightmare sequences also feel like fakeouts – how many times do viewers have to see her in danger only to wake up?

Maybe ambiguity is a bad word in describing the flaws of Sister Brother Manhole Cover because that word also emulates its good parts. The film feels like scattershot until the third act, which glues together all of its ideas concerning the morality of its characters’ actions. In some ways, it’s easier to kill Todora, but they keep her alive and a relationship blossoms and mutates. It’s strange to have a relationship with a woman who ends up raising a monster, and shows flashes of that monstrosity as well.