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NIKOLA, NIKOLA

NIKOLA, NIKOLA

LEON RISTOV | NORTH MACEDONIA + USA | 2026 | 17 MIN | MACEDONIAN EST

LEON RISTOV | NORTH MACEDONIA + USA | 2026 | 17 MIN | MACEDONIAN EST

VIRTUALShort

Subtitles: English

Synopsis

At 3AM in Skopje, seventeen-year-old Nikola sneaks out to meet a forty-year-old man he has been messaging online. When their car becomes stuck in remote woods, isolation strips away fantasy and forces Nikola to confront power, desire and possible danger.

Trailer

Filmmaker Bio

Leon Ristov is a Macedonian filmmaker based in New York. His films have screened at the Sarajevo Film Festival and internationally. He is an alumnus of the Sundance Institute Ignite Fellowship, Sony Pictures Classics' Marcie Bloom Fellowship and Clermont-Ferrand Euro Connection. Ristov holds an MFA in Screenwriting & Directing from Columbia University and a BA in Film Studies from Wesleyan University.

Director's Statement

NIKOLA, NIKOLA is the first Macedonian film to focus on contemporary gay hookup culture in the country. Part coming-of-age and part thriller, the film explores what it means to grow up in a society that lacks empathy for queer people, preferring not to discuss or see them altogether. It asks how these attitudes shape young queer men's ideas of intimacy, connection, and love, and what happens when social prejudice begins to intertwine with personal fantasy.

Producer

Kaustubh Singh, Ognen Antov

Writer

Leon Ristov, Annie Ning

Cast

  • Stefan Jevtic
  • Filip Trajkovic
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