Georgi M. Unkovski on making his music-filled crowd-pleaser DJ Ahmet
DJ Ahmet won the World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award and a Special Jury Award for Creative Vision at the Sundance Film Festival last year and it’s clear to see why. It’s a charmer!
Macedonian filmmaker Georgi M. Unkovski‘s debut feature tells the story of 15-year-old Ahmet (Arif Jakup), who lives in a remote Yörük village in North Macedonia. Despite the community’s strict conservative values, Ahmet, his younger brother Naim (Agush Agushev) and their neighbour Aya (Dora Akan Zlatanova) find refuge in dance music.
I recently spoke with Unkovski over Zoom to discuss the making of the film, including casting non-professional actors, picking the banging soundtrack and directing sheep.
Take me right back to the very beginning. How long ago did you write this script and what was the original idea?
I started writing it in 2020. So we had a short film at Sundance and that kind of propelled the idea that we should do something right away. The initial seed of the idea was the scene of the shepherd entering the techno party in the festival, and that was kind of the image that stuck with me for a while before I even put anything down to paper.
And then how did it evolve over time to become what it is?
There’s so many factors that made it evolve. I think it evolved the most when we found the actors and they really brought their own dynamic and their own authenticity to the script.
Is this a community you’re personally familiar with or did you have to do research?
I had to research it. I mean, it’s a known community, there’s been a lot of documentaries about them, but this was the first time that they’ve kind of been included in production and the POV wasn’t anthropological or an observer of their traditions and village, but more kind of a collaboration, which was the goal from the beginning.
So some of the villagers are actually in your film?
Yeah, so this is a Turkish minority in North Macedonia. They’re called Yörüks; they’re kind of the Amish of the Turkish people, so it’s a minority within a minority in a way. It’s very authentic, you know, they still dress in a certain way and they still keep certain traditions that are very unique to these villages. And this is one of the last villages that exists in such a way.
Do they appear as background actors?
Yeah, hundreds of them (laughs).
I read that you discovered Arif and Agush from the villages as well. They are extraordinary finds. How did you find them? What was the casting process like? And then how did you prepare them to act for the first time?
We saw over 3,000 children from these communities over three or four months. I mean, 90% of the work was done in casting because they’re kind of playing themselves and it’s really who they are. Arif, who plays Ahmet, he is from the village where we shot the film and I think that authenticity really makes it work.
And what about Agush? I thought he was adorable as Naim and he looked so happy when he was dancing.
I feel like we got really lucky and I feel like all three of them – Ahmet, Naim and Aya – they’re all first time in front of the camera. For me, it was just to create the context and create the positive environment for them to really be themselves. But I feel they really carry the film on their shoulders.
Yes, 100%! They are so good. In the actual dancing scenes, is there music on set for them to dance to, or are they pretending?
No, absolutely, there is music. We played that music in front of the whole village. What’s a bit different from the film is they actually really enjoyed the performance so we had to tell them to tone it a little bit in the audience because they were having a good time.
I love dance music so I was really into the soundtrack. How did you go about finding these songs and picking the right song for the right moment?
It was kind of like going down the rabbit hole for many years before we settled on the music. One of the biggest finds for me was C.U.T., who kind of brought this hip-hop dance element to the film and brought it to another level, so I’m really happy that I managed to find them in a sea of music.
I saw there were three of their songs in the movie. Did you reach out to them and ask if you could use them?
Absolutely, yeah, yeah. I don’t know exactly when it happened but once they were fixed in the editing room and I was really kind of certain that we need them and I want them, then absolutely, we reached out to them. Also, I need to mention the composers of the score of the film, Alen and Nenad Sinkauz, who are two amazing Croatian composers who kind of tied the whole thing together.
You said that your actors are sort of playing themselves. Was there a script or was it more of a guide for where each scene would go?
There was a script, but before the shooting, we kind of sat down with them and really reworked the dialogue to kind of adapt it to make it more natural for them, so they really had an impact on the tone of certain scenes.
There are a few moments that really made me laugh. The running joke about the sounds coming from the mosque tower made me laugh every time. How did you come up with that gag?
I don’t know but I’m very proud of it (laughs). It comes down from really I wanted to show how we all have parents or grandparents who are struggling with technology, and for me, it was just natural that it would happen here as well and I investigated a lot of instances in which similar things have happened across the world in different countries so I thought it was kind of a great way to show humanity.
There are a few comedy moments but it’s also dramatic and heartfelt. How do you balance the tones within your film?
I mean, it’s always a challenge to do it right, but generally, (it’s) what I try to do in all the stuff I do. This is what I’m most interested in because I feel like life is a bit like that in a way, the tragedy and comedy and sadness and happiness are very intertwined, and we often experience them either at the same time or at very close intervals. For me, it’s just a way of expression and I’d like to pursue it further.
When you look back at the finished film, is there a scene or a sequence you’re most proud of?
I’m just proud that it got made in general because it was a very, very difficult to make, and there’s many instances where it seemed like it’s not going to get made, so in that sense, I’m just happy. The proudest thing is the perseverance of the crew and myself for getting to the end.
Was that a financing issue?
Yeah, financing, logistics, a lot of stuff at the same time. It’s very similar for any film anywhere in the world, but it’s my first film, (so) it took some getting used to the realities.
When did you actually go into production on this?
We started in 2023, I think it was around September.
How long did the filming last?
We shot for 36 days, and then after, we edited for almost six or seven months. And then it was the sound production and post-production. We finished very, very (last minute), I think like five days before the premiere at Sundance, we were still doing colour correction.
Right down the wire! But it paid off, though, you got all those awards!
Yeah, the success of the film is really amazing. I’m really humbled by it. We really didn’t expect it was going to reach that far but I’m really happy about it.
And were there any particular challenges during filming?
Yeah, hundreds (laughs). Everybody says don’t work with animals and kids for your first film and I got straight into that. Also, I don’t speak Turkish and the film is in Turkish so that was a really huge challenge for me. But generally, it was a very difficult film to make. People say that the first film is made with blood and I guess it was true, in its own way.
I really love the scene where Aya does her dance in front of the traditional audience and I just wondered if you could walk me through the filming that day. Was there a choreographer? How did it all come together?
The dance sequence, it was choreographed and it was practised for some time before the performance. It was the first day of the shoot actually, and it was one of the worst days because we got there at like 10am and it was this impenetrable fog covering the whole mountain. The first four hours were completely lost that day and a lot of technical problems and issues generally. In hindsight, it wasn’t probably the best thing to start with because we were still kind of getting our bearings. But generally, we did a lot of it on that day and we did another half-day after that to really kind of capture the audience and the reactions. I’m very happy with it. It’s one of my favourite scenes in the film.
It’s such a good scene. You mentioned just now about working with animals. What was trying to corral the sheep like? Surely they didn’t take direction very well!
No, no, the sheep is a very stubborn animal. They’re very fast, which I discovered, they’re incredibly fast animals. We had more than one occasion where we had to chase them across the mountain and they ran away. But you know, you can never guess which direction it’s going to go. There’s one scene at the end of the film – I don’t want to reveal it – shot from a drone that I was convinced we’d have to do a CGI or VFX rendition of that idea, but we managed to shoot it on the first day. And there were other scenes that I thought were going to be very easy that we ended up shooting for eight hours. So it’s really hard to predict which way the shoot will take you.
What are you working on next?
I’m currently writing a musical. It’s going to be sort of a pirate musical with a twist. I won’t share anything more than that, but I’m very excited to be doing a musical because I find it terrifying, and it’s very exciting that it’s terrifying.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity
DJ Ahmet is in UK cinemas from Friday 27th March