Prishtina, Kosova, late 1990s. As war looms and ethnic tensions
escalate, 13-year-old Dua struggles to find her place among her peers and within her changing body. After an incident shakes her community, she becomes a target herself and bonds with a fearless girl, Maki, who draws her toward an unexpected form of resistance. Between the daily violence and the growing threat of exile, there is little room for quiet awakenings.

“Cinematographer Lucie Baudinaud builds an anxiety-machine from handheld camerawork, giving Dua’s inner fracture a physical grammar. The lens twitches, searches, hovers. It copies the body language of someone trained to suspect the edge of every shadow.” (Arash Nahandian, https://gazettely.com)

Blerta Basholli is a Kosovo-born writer and director. During the war, she took refuge in North Macedonia and Germany. Her early works include short films MIRROR, MIRROR…, GJAKOVA 726 and LENA & ME which were selected and awarded at many festivals. Her debut feature film, HIVE, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it made history by winning the Grand Jury Prize, the Directing Award, and the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, the first film ever to sweep all three awards in that category. DUA is her second feature.

Filmography (selection): 2006 MIRROR, MIRROR…, 2009 GJAKOVA 726, 2011 LENA & ME (all short films), 2021 HIVE, 2026 DUA

Awards: SACD Award Critics’ Week (Cannes International Film Festival, France 2026)