Canadian Premiere
Seventeen-year-old Sara has a big secret to hide as she embarks on a school trip. Already contending with hurtful rumours circulating among her classmates, spread by two boys with a particular interest in tarnishing her reputation, things come to a head when Sara witnesses the sexual assault of her best friend. As her own secret becomes impossible to hide, Sara is forced her to make some life-altering decisions.
Following in the footsteps of Andrea Arnold’s raw social-realist cinema, rising Macedonian director Kosara Mitić plunges the viewer headfirst into Sara’s world — beginning with a skin-crawling opening scene that sets in motion a chain of gut-wrenching events — and newcomer Eva Kostić is in pure primal mode as an adolescent girl whose boundaries have been severely transgressed. This is a bold feature debut that shines a light on the most volatile corners of the teenage experience.
Content Considerations: Sexual violence, bullying
Oscars submission: North Macedonia
Eva Kostić, Martina Danilovska, Dame Joveski, Eva Stojchevska, Petar Manic
North Macedonia/Slovenia/
Serbia
2026
In Macedonian with English subtitles
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Credits & Director
Producer
Tomi Salkovski
Screenwriter
Kosara Mitić, Ognjen Svilicic
Cinematography
Naum Doksevski
Editor
Vladimir Pavlovski
Production Design
Dejan Gjoshevski, Aleksandra Chevreska
Kosara Mitić
Kosara Mitić is the North Macedonian director and screenwriter of several short films that have screened in festivals around the world. Her debut feature film, 17, was developed through MIDPOINT Feature Launch, and was presented and awarded the CineLink Work in Progress at the 2025 Sarajevo Film Festival. She is an alumna of Berlinale Talents, a program supporting emerging filmmakers.
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