Dua

Kosovo, the 1990s: 13-year-old Dua is coming of age, but the country is heading towards war.

Dua struggles with friends, boys and a changing body. Perfectly ordinary teenage problems. But those problems shrink as tensions escalate in Kosovo and violence against Kosovo Albanians becomes increasingly normalised. When the schools close, she starts homeschooling. There, she meets Maki, a girl who has fled from the war in the countryside.

Director Blerta Basholli broke through with HIVE (2021), which won multiple awards at Sundance and screened at the Oslo Pix Film Festival that same year. Her second feature, DUA, is based on her own upbringing in Pristina. The film premiered in Critics' Week in Cannes earlier this year.