Asja, a 40-year-old single woman, lives in Sarajevo. In order to meet new people, she ends up spending her Saturday in a speed dating event. She’s matched with Zoran, a 43-year-old banker. However, Zoran is not looking for love but forgiveness.

“What defines us: our ethnicity, religion, gender? What divide us or unite us? This is a story about precariousness of life, the chance encounters bringing together the aggressor and the victim, reviving the painful past; this is a story of impossible connections, of love and absurdity. I see this film as a symphony of choreographed movements unpacking layers of emotions that slowly entangle the viewer to a point of vertigo-like state. Location is essential: an 80s style hotel, a witness to Ex-Yugoslav architectural style(…), and then there is the injured city of Sarajevo, a testament to open wounds and past pains.” (Teona Strugar Mitevska)

Macedonian-born Teona Strugar Mitevska started as a child actor, trained as a painter and graphic designer and studied Film at NYU – Tisch School of Arts. GOD EXISTS, HER NAME IS PETRUNYA premiered in competition in Berlin International Film Festival 2019, where it was awarded the Ecumenical Prize and the German Guild Film Prize. She is currently in pre-production of MOTHER, her first English-language film. She lives between Skopje and Brussels with her son Kaeliok.

Filmography (selection): 2017 WHEN THE DAY HAD NO NAME, 2019 GOD EXISTS, HER NAME IS PETRUNYA, 2022 THE HAPPIEST MAN IN THE WORLD

Awards (selection): Prize for Best Actress and Best Sound (Brussels International Film Festival, Belgium 2023), Bridging the Borders Award (Palm Springs International Film Festival, USA 2023)