‘DJ Ahmet’ Movie Review [Sundance 2025]: A Middling Coming-of-Age Story That Sticks To Tropes

Photo from Sundance Film Festival

From Jeff Nelson

There is never a shortage of coming-of-age stories at the Sundance Film Festival, making it much more difficult for these films to distinguish themselves from the crowd. Georgi M. Unkovski’s DJ Ahmet introduces us to a new setting rarely explored in movies, but the emotional component is missing. Hints of tenderness are scattered throughout an otherwise familiar tale of adolescence that lacks conviction.

Fifteen-year-old Ahmet (Arif Jakup) lives in a rural village in North Macedonia with his single father (Aksel Mehmet) and mute younger brother, Naim (Agush Agushev). In a conservative community, he finds refuge in music and his first love, Aya (Dora Akan Zlatanova).

Ahmet is an introvert living a quiet life until his father suddenly pulls him from school to help support the small family unit. His mother died, leaving the household without a heart to emotionally connect it. The teenager tries to provide warmth for Naim, but their father constantly strips them of their joy. A formidable religious influence drives the patriarch and the greater community, telling the youth what music and expressions of dance are acceptable. Ahmet tends to the sheep and provides for Naim, who is forced to see a local healer to cure him of his refusal to speak. Their father’s unfair expectations and pressure cause the boys to retreat further into themselves.

Aya instantly catches Ahmet’s eye, which opens his heart and simultaneously sends him into a panic reconciling with the rising romantic feelings. She holds a quiet affection for him, even though her close friends find him strange. However, Aya’s family already offered her hand in marriage to another boy in an arrangement she wants no part of. She is a free spirit with dreams beyond their rural village, rebelling against her strict father’s (Selpin Kerim) wishes in her own way – dancing. Ahmet and Aya share a connection with music that progressively grows stronger, which pulls him out of his shell and pushes her closer toward her big-city goals. 

Unkovski builds an intriguing world without an interior to invest in. Ahmet, Naim, their father, and Aya are at the movie’s dramatic core, each plot beat hitting precisely as you would expect it to. On the surface, DJ Ahmet has characters we want to get to know within a compelling setting, but it frustratingly doesn’t lead anywhere. Jakup plays the title character fine, elevating small moments with Agushev’s Naim and Zlatanova’s Aya. However, that sincerity is short-lived before this drama’s tenderness slips through its fingers.

DJ Ahmet is lukewarm in its sense of humor, drama, and romance. Character depth plateaus and their hardships feel too familiar to grow particularly invested in their journeys. Unkovski’s feature debut isn’t a bad one, but it isn’t a particularly memorable one either. 

Rating: 2.5/5

DJ Ahmet played Sundance 2025 on January 23rd, 2025.

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