In a remote North Macedonian village, 15-year-old Ahmet dreams of becoming a DJ. The pressure from his conservative father and his duties as a shepherd weigh him down. But then he falls in love for the first time - although the rebellious Aya is promised to someone else. When he accidentally stumbles into a secret night-time techno party in the forest, the world turns colorful - even a sheep glows pink. DJ AHMET not only won over the audience, but also the jury with its charming style, wit and the warmth of the story told. The drama 2025 was rightly awarded both the Volkswagen Financial Services Film Award jury prize and the HEINRICH audience award at the Braunschweig International Film Festival.
"We are very pleased with the great response DJ AHMET received at the Braunschweig International Film Festival, and especially with the audience award Der HEINRICH. Such awards show how much the film touches its audience and are a wonderful confirmation for us as a distributor.Our special thanks go to the festival and the audience in Braunschweig for their support and enthusiasm for this film, and we are all the more pleased that DJ AHMET can now be discovered by audiences throughout Germany when it is released," says Thorsten Frehse, Managing Director of Neue Visionen Filmverleih.
Enthusiasm among the Volkswagen Financial Services Film Award jury
Director Georgi M. Unkovski's DJ AHMET also won over the jury of the Volkswagen Financial Services Film Prize, which awards the prize for the best film in the main competition.
"With tenderness and humor, this charming coming-of-age film captures the conflict between modernity and tradition. It portrays the weight of conservative life with empathy and affection, without ever losing sight of the humanity of its characters. The breathtaking cinematography captures the fascinating landscapes of the setting and reveals the soul of a place as vividly as that of its inhabitants. The young actors radiate warmth and authenticity and lend the story both humor and depth," is how the expert jury described the film.
Volkswagen Financial Services is sponsoring both the audience award Der HEINRICH for the Braunschweig International Film Festival, which goes equally to the distributor and the director, and the Volkswagen Financial Services Film Award for the best film in the main competition.
Aftershow party with a visit from the director
"On Friday, March 20, we have the honor of welcoming director Georgi M. Unkovski for a film talk at the 7 p.m. screening of DJ AHMET at Universum! Afterwards there will be an after-show party with a welcome drink in the cinema bistro Abspann, where DJ Soundschwester will be playing music to accompany the film. We are very much looking forward to a colorful evening and dance-crazy guests!", says Michael Werner, Press and Public Relations at Universum Filmtheater.
Tickets for the screening are available at https://www.universum-filmtheater.de/kinoprogramm.
"We are absolutely delighted that the audience favorite DJ AHMET is finally coming to cinemas and that it has a strong and committed film distributor at its side in Neue Visionen. Now that the film has had almost a year of festival exploitation worldwide behind it, the film is finally being made available to the regular cinema audience, and we as the BIFF team are delighted to have supported the film and the director," says Karina Gauerhof, Artistic Director of the Braunschweig International Film Festival.
DJ AHMET
North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia 2025 | 99 min. | FSK 12
Director: Georgi M. Unkovski
Trailer