Shadows

You know what it’s like when you have a near-death experience and then start seeing odd people doing weird stuff? Yeah, that one again. Young Macedonian doctor Lazar (Nacev) tries to grapple with peculiar apparitions, an overbearing mother, a wife on extended vacation and ultimately, his country’s troubled past, in this pretentious drama from writer-director Milcho Manchevski (Before the Rain). Shifting between garish city and bucolic scenes, Shadows offers some arresting images but fails to make good on its intriguing early scenes, with frissons of uncanny menace sunk by a glib, awkwardly paced and increasingly cliché screenplay.