DJ AHMET

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Storyline (warning: spoilers)

A 15-year-old Yuruk boy from a remote Macedonian village escapes into music amidst parental expectations, societal conservatism, and forbidden love for a promised girl. Ahmet (Arif Jakup) is pulled out of his school by his father (Aksel Mehmet) to help shepherd the sheep while he takes his 4-year-old brother, Naim (Agush Agushev), to the witch doctor to cure his muteness. With the family still reeling from their mother’s recent death, Ahmet falls further in love with music, something his brother equally loves but his father dislikes. He notices Aya (Dora Akan Zlatanova) in the village, recently returned from Germany for an arranged marriage.
Like his deceased mother, Ahmet and his younger sibling Naim share a great love for music while their grieving father focuses on laying down rigid rules that prioritize herding sheep over education and going to a healer to cure Naim of his speechlessness. Ahmet becomes bewitched by Aya who is the leader of a local dance troupe that trains for the village festival. Ahmet and Aya bond over their shared love of modern things such as TikTok, music, and dance, gradually falling more and more in love with each other. When Aya’s marriage goes ahead, Ahmet does whatever he can to cause a distraction for her to escape.
A missing sheep causes a rift between father and son with the latter not welcomed back into the house until it is found and the animal’s fate has a surreal outcome. The true heart and soul of the narrative is the relationship between the two brothers who are there for each other no matter what happens. The landscape is very much a character and the presence of sheep herding and smartphones emphasizes the clash between parental traditional expectations and teenage new-age ambitions. The most dramatic, effective and uplifting message is that compassion and understanding are essential in enabling someone to heal from a severe trauma rather than be forced fed a remedy determined by another’s timetable