This haunting anti-war film offers insight into the reasons for the long history of ethnic wars within the Balkan states. It was filmed in Macedonia, a mountainous country bordering Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, and Serbia. The film is divided into three very different, yet related stories: "Words," which is set in the past, tells the story of an Orthodox monk who shelters a Muslim girl from Albania in an ancient monastery. The girl, Zamira, has been accused of killing the brother of a gang of armed trouble-makers. "Faces," with its contemporary British setting, presents a love triangle between Anne, a Britain, her Macedonian lover Aleksandar, a Pullitzer Prize winning war photographer, and Nick, her dull husband. Before she can choose between the two men, Aleksandar returns to Macedonia, and Nick is killed in a restaurant shoot out. "Pictures" follows Aleksandar's return to his home village as he tries to forget the horrors he witnessed as a war correspondent. He seeks peace, but finds instead that his Christian village is at war with a nearby Muslim village.