Kosovar director Blerta Basholli, whose 2021 debut "Hive" swept top prizes at Sundance, has premiered her second feature "Dua" at Cannes' Critics' Week before a screening this week at Sarajevo Film Festival. Speaking to Variety, Basholli described the semi-autobiographical film as a coming-of-age story about 13-year-old Dua navigating daily violence and the threat of displacement during the late-1990s Kosovo war, aiming to show that teenagers in conflict zones share the same struggles as anyone else. The film matters as a rare, intimate cinematic account of the Kosovo war told through a young girl's personal journey rather than broad historical explanation.

Basholli said most scenes draw directly on her own wartime experiences, from protests and news coverage to family debates about leaving the country, and that she deliberately avoided over-explaining Kosovo's complex history to focus on Dua's individual story. Shot largely in unbroken long takes to preserve a naturalistic atmosphere, the film cites influences including the Dardenne brothers' "Rosetta," Andrea Arnold's "Fish Tank" and Lucrecia Martel's "La Niña Santa." Newcomer Pinea Matoshi was cast as Dua after an extensive search of Prishtina schools involving roughly 5,000 children, while Yllka Gashi, the lead of "Hive," plays Dua's mother.