A multi-award-winning declaration of love for music – a culture clash between tradition and modernity, captured in magical images. 15-year-old Ahmet, a shepherd boy, finds refuge in music in his remote North Macedonian village. He dreams of being able to make a living as a DJ and escaping his father’s expectations. In the meantime, he aims to use his music to win the heart of young Aya, who is immersed in preparations for a village festival with her dance troupe. There’s just one thing standing in Ahmet’s way: the girl is already promised to another.

“A love against traditional wishes as a cheeky crowd-pleaser with its heart in the right place: DJ AHMET not only conveys the austere life of half-nomadic shepherds in North Macedonia, it also conveys the advent of modernity via TikTok [and] hip-hop (…) in areas of Europe that are disparagingly labelled as backward. Hit play!” (www.outnow.ch)

Georgi M. Unkovski, born in New York in 1988, is a Macedonian writer and director. He graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology – Eastman’s School of Photography, in the field of the fine arts. After this, he moved to Prague to enrol in the post-graduate program at FAMU. Since his studies, he has lived in Skopje/North Macedonia and worked for one of the country’s leading advertising agencies. His short film STICKER has won over 50 awards. DJ AHMET is his first feature film.

Filmography: 2015 PEPI AND MUTO, 2019 STICKER (both short films), 2025 DJ AHMET

Awards (selection): Audience Award and World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award (Sundance Film Festival, USA 2025), Youth Perspectives Award and Audience Award (Sarajevo Film Festival, Bosnia and Herzegovina 2025)