17
Macedonia del Norte, Serbia, Eslovenia, 2026.
Directed by: Kosara Mitic.
Kosara Mitic (Skopje, 1987) is a director and screenwriter from North Macedonia. She has directed several short films screened at international festivals, where her work has been recognized for its narrative precision, emotional restraint, and attention to social realities. She is an alumna of the Berlinale Talents program. "17" is her feature film debut.
Cast: Dame Joveski, Martina Danilovska, Eva Kostic.
Running time: 107 min.
Synopsis
Seventeen-year-old Sara sets off on a school trip that, like so many at that age, seems destined for the lightness of adolescent discovery. Yet something remains hidden within her—a quiet unease the film hints at from the very beginning, gradually deepening beneath the group’s apparent carefreeness. Amid an atmosphere of restless euphoria—long nights, alcohol, and latent tensions—a violent episode irrevocably alters the bond between Sara and Lina. Mitic approaches the subject with remarkable restraint. Rather than emphasizing events, she suggests them: lingering on silences, fleeting gestures, and the discomfort that settles in when what has happened cannot be spoken. This attentive gaze avoids melodrama and instead crafts a sensitive portrait of adolescence. 17 moves within the fragile terrain of youthful complicity and normalized violence that often goes unnoticed. At its core lies the relationship between the two girls—a quiet alliance born from shared experience that subtly gestures toward the possibility of breaking away from what once seemed inevitable.
Seventeen-year-old Sara sets off on a school trip that, like so many at that age, seems destined for the lightness of adolescent discovery. Yet something remains hidden within her—a quiet unease the film hints at from the very beginning, gradually deepening beneath the group’s apparent carefreeness. Amid an atmosphere of restless euphoria—long nights, alcohol, and latent tensions—a violent episode irrevocably alters the bond between Sara and Lina...