Kosovo*

• “This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999.”

Dita (Anamaria Marinca) never wanted to be anyone’s mother. Until, under duress, her terminally ill girlfriend Sauda (Alina Serban) extracts a promise that Dita will be a mum to her two daughters: sparky six-year-old live-wire Mia (Dzada Selim) and rebellious teenager Vanesa (Mia Mustafa). Not only that, Sauda insists that Dita’s gay housemate Toni (Vladimir Tintor) is named Vanesa’s father on her birth certificate. Tensions erupt in Dita’s already explosive Skopje household: her home is a chaotic safe house for a constant stream of outcasts and misfits.

The latest film from Macedonia-born Australian director Goran Stolevski is a phenomenal achievement – an untamed, densely detailed drama that crackles with so much feral energy, that you practically get a static shock from the screen.

(Wendy Ide, Screen Daily)