DJ Ahmet
Directed by Georgi M. Unkovski
North Macedonia
2025
99 mins

Synopsis

Charming, funny and uplifting, this Sundance Audience Award-winner tells the story of a 15-year-old North Macedonian boy who finds refuge in dance music and in first love.

Ahmet and his brother Naim are growing up in a family scarred by grief in a remote village, conservative as it is superstitious. The boys’ stern father has no qualms forcing Ahmet to work on the family sheep farm rather than let him go to school, whilst he takes his little brother Naim, silent since his mother’s death, to a suspect healer. Into this grim reality enters the beautiful Aya, who has returned from Germany in order to enter an arranged marriage. When Ahmet discovers a secret rave he is immediately transfixed by the music, and by Aya, and sees a path to a more joyous and free life. With a mostly non-professional cast, director Georgi M. Unkovski has made an authentic, jubilant feature debut about art’s liberating power.

The sort of film that urges one to tell everyone about it so that they too can bask in its wondrous pleasures, DJ Ahmet is a revelation in that it seamlessly straddles the line between laugh-out-loud crowd-pleaser and art-house gem with affecting gravitas
Carlos Aguilar, Variety
  • Year
    2025
  • Country
    North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia
  • Language
    In Turkish and Macedonian with English subtitles
  • Director
    Georgi M. Unkovski
  • Producer
    Ivan Unkovski, Ivana Shekutkoska
  • Cast
    Arif Jakup, Agush Agushev, Dora Akan Zlatanova
  • Screenwriter
    Georgi M. Unkovski
  • Cinematographer
    Naum Doksevski
  • Editor
    Michal Reich
  • Premiere
    Australian Premiere
  • Company Credits
    Australian Distributor: Madman Entertainment
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