Georgi Unkovski knew early on that his debut feature would include sheep at an illegal rave on a rural farm in Macedonia. “It’s the core idea of the film,” the 36-year-old Macedonian director tells me over Zoom from his home in Skopje. “It’s visualising these two worlds co-existing.” He explains that farm animals are stubborn, even if the DJ is dropping club – or cub – classics. “We shot for two days, just trying to get these sheep into the party. From 20 hours of shooting, we had 25 seconds of usable raw material.”

Unkovski is talking about DJ Ahmet, a coming-of-age drama about a 15-year-old boy in a Yörük village in North Macedonia, who falls in love with EDM culture amid pressure to dedicate his life to working on the family farm. Ahmet (Arif Jakup, a first-time performer) and his younger brother, Naim (Agush Agushev), were raised by their strict father (Aksel Mehmet) in a conservative community, a factor made worse by Ahmet’s mother’s death – Naim has since remained mute.

Things change for Ahmet when he stumbles upon an ecstatically lit, noisy, outdoor DJ set full of open-hearted ravers, including a future crush, Aya (Dora Akan Zlatanova), a local girl preparing to rebel against an arranged marriage. When Ahmet’s bleating sheep crash the party, it’s a reminder of his responsibilities – his father pulled him out of school to ensure he doesn’t leave the village. Now his EDM itch has been scratched, Ahmet sets upon transforming a tractor into a DJ booth with wheels.

In writing the script, Unkovski drew upon his inner 15-year-old. “For all of us, music at some point of our life has been an intimate friend,” he says. “I use music to deal with trauma and emotions that have no way to be expressed.” It helps, too, that his young actors were all amateurs who brought their own natural spontaneity. “Arif was from the village where we shot the film. The casting was 80% of the work. In real life, Arif listens to rap, and Dora loves rock. But they appreciate music. In that sense, it’s authentic.”

The greater authenticity, though, is in the culture clash between the local teens – who grew up with smartphones, TikTok, and a desire to record themselves while dancing around the farm – and the elder Yörük shepherds steeped in traditionalism. Unkovski believes it’s likely that DJ Ahmet is the first-ever fiction feature about the Yörük community. “It felt like a responsibility to show their culture in a special way. The film isn’t saying traditions are bad, or that the modern world is good. Both have good and bad sides. I’m just showing the personal struggle of someone from that community.”

I wanted to show that even through the hardness and pain, there’s colour and beauty. Even when you live a difficult life, you don’t see things in black-and-white

While Ahmet’s father may seem like the film’s villain, he’s really a grieving widower who wasn’t brought up to express his emotions. “In certain communities, it’s hard for men to show pain, grief, or weakness,” says Unkovski. “He’s hiding his human side poorly. He’s not a bad person.” What will the culture clash be like in, for example, 20 years from now? “I think it’s a transitional phase. The media has too strong of an influence on these communities. We’re going to see less and less of the traditions.”

Born in Macedonia, Unkovski studied filmmaking in Rochester, New York, moved to Prague for five years, and has since been back in Macedonia since 2015. For his masters, he wrote a thesis on how videogames would shape the future of cinema. “I’m a huge gamer,” he says. “I met one of my idols, Hideo Kojima, last year. I always wanted to direct a video game, but I’m more sceptical now than I was in the past.” How come? “There’s something beautiful in how a film isn’t interactive in the same way as a video game. I appreciate not having to give constant inputs.”

Instead of being into video games, though, the young characters of DJ Ahmet are drawn to the community aspect of music, and how going to raves makes them feel less alone. Even so, there’s a generational divide: Ahmet and Aya delight in the rebellious nature of EDM parties and creating viral TikToks while their families react with genuine fury. Supporting Ahmet’s young perspective on the world, the film boasts a deliriously bright colour palette, snappy editing, and even a modern sheen in how a sunrise is captured through a drone camera.

“I wanted to make a positive film,” says Unkovski. “In this part of Europe, there’s a lot of dark themes, drama, and tragedies. We used the colours and music to separate us from other Balkan films. I wanted to show that even through the hardness and pain, there’s colour and beauty. Even when you live a difficult life, you don’t see things in black-and-white.”

The playfulness was further established during rehearsals when Unkovski scrapped his plans for static cameras, Steadicams, and fastidiously designed dolly shots. The amateur cast, he learned, were best captured through handheld cameras. “These kids were not actors. They benefited from a borderline documentary style.”

Next up for Unkovski is a pirate musical set in Macedonia. The director isn’t a fan of musicals, so it’s a self-inflicted challenge to escape his comfort zone. Returning to the topic of video games, I ask him what he believes cinema achieves as a medium than a PlayStation cannot provide. “There’s a feeling of accomplishment in video games that you don’t get with films,” he says. “I don’t think that’s a bad thing. For me, films should be like dreams. You watch a good film, and three days later, you think about it again. It feels foggy, but the emotions stay with you. It reaches your subconscious in a way video games don’t.”

DJ Ahmet is out in UK cinemas now.