DJ AHMET
The script hits its beats with the precision of a well-programmed 808, and occasionally with similar predictability
Directed by: Georgi M. Unkovski
Starring: Arif Jakup, Agush Agushev, Dora Akan Zlatanova
Certificate: tbc
Released: 27 March 2026
Rating: 8/10
Way back in 1988 New Order saw fit to fade out their Balearic anthem "Fine Time" with the sound of a lamb bleating plaintively over the sequencers. This was doubtless a reference to their own shameless, sheep-like boarding of the acid house gravy train rather than to the lambs that dot the Ibizan hillsides, but you might be reminded of it watching the delightful breakout film from Macedonian director Georgi M. Unkovski – in particular the scene where his eponymous teenage shepherd investigates strange noises in the woods, stumbles upon a rave, loses his flock amid the dancers, and inadvertently becomes North Macedonia's first TikTok star.
The scene is key to Unkovski's Sundance award-winning film, which is concerned with the yawning generation gaps opening up in the country's Muslim Yuruk community. The grandparents seem like they are slowly emerging from the nomadic 14th century, while their grandkids, hooked to their iPhones, are racing headlong into the 21st. Ahmet lives on a hillside farm with his dad and his little brother Naim, who hasn't spoken since their mother died. His encounter with the forest rave, and specifically the teenage dancer Aya from the neighbouring farm, steels his determination to play music – and soon, in defiance of all paternal warnings, he has his tractor rigged up with a home-made sound system.
To be sure, this is no Kusturican revelation. The script hits its beats with the precision of a well-programmed 808, and occasionally with similar predictability – you might be put in mind of Footloose, but with more muezzin wails. But in his young lead Arif Jakup, Unkovski has discovered a diamond, and cinematographer Naum Doksevski bathes the whole enterprise in an irresistible golden light.
