How can a 17-year-old girl be pregnant without anyone noticing? How do you hide such a big secret? A young woman who feels lost and afraid points to a collective societal failure.
17 – it sounds like the best years of our lives, when we have fun, worry less, and enjoy what feels like unlimited freedom. But in 17, the debut film by Kosara Mitić, a female director from North Macedonia, that number becomes something much darker. Mitić was inspired by a newspaper article that shocked her so deeply she felt compelled to turn it into a script – one that doesn’t allow the audience to sit comfortably in their seats.I was almost the same age when I first read the real story: a 17‑year‑old girl, pregnant, who threw her newborn baby into a garbage container. The act of throwing the baby away is not a coincidence. It is a violent snap from a frightened society and a final scream for attention.
The story we follow on the big screen is dedicated to all those who cannot speak or stand up for themselves. The despair, fear, and pain of the main protagonist make some viewers look away, unable to witness the weight of her reality. How can a 17‑year‑old be pregnant without anyone knowing – not her parents, not her teachers, not even her friends? How do you bury a secret that big? A young girl who feels lost and terrified of the consequences is not a sign of individual failure; it is a collective one.
Hiding in Shame
The film opens with her having sex with two boys at the same time. After that night, we see Sara (Eva Kostić) as a withdrawn girl, ashamed, bullied, and gossiped about for what happened. The whole class, heading on their school excursion, behaves carelessly and disrespectfully toward the teacher and the hotel staff. I spent my adolescence in the same city, and throughout the film I kept asking myself: Were we the same? Or have we lost our values and common sense somewhere along the way?Sara is verbally attacked by her schoolmates while hiding her pregnancy under layers of clothes – choosing silence because it feels easier than facing the problem or seeking help. The script exposes the emotional violence young women often face. And in an oppressive system, silence becomes a strategy, not an accident. Sara’s silence isolates her completely, until she witnesses the sexual assault of a classmate.
That classmate is Lina (Martina Danilovska), a girl who seems to have the attention and love of her mother – in sharp contrast to Sara’s mother, whose only advice for the excursion is to use sunscreen to avoid wrinkles, as if that is the worst thing that could happen to a young woman. Yet even with that support, Lina gets drunk and becomes a prisoner of her own shame and fear. This moment forces us to question whether we mirror the attitudes we learn at home, or whether the pressure of the group pushes us to act in ways we later regret. How strong can an individual be when they must fight against a conservative, patriarchal society that already has a fixed image of how a person should behave.
Shared Trauma – Life-Saving Friendship
Sara and Lina build a fragile but powerful friendship through their shared trauma. That connection gives Sara strength – the realization that she is not the only one suffering. In that moment of trust, she finally reveals her secret to Lina: she is pregnant.The film’s ending differs from the real story that once shook our society. Mitić chooses to give space for empathy, allowing us to face Sara’s trauma and her desperate scream for visibility. Eva Kostić, in the leading role, delivers a powerful performance, carrying the story with a raw sorrow that culminates in the moment she gives birth. Her scream is a scream for attention, for pain, for courage – but above all, it is a scream that exposes us. 17 doesn’t simply tell the story of one girl; it reveals the cracks in a society that prefers silence over confrontation, shame over support, and judgment over understanding. It shows how an oppressive system teaches young people to hide, to fear, to disappear – until the only moment they are finally seen is when tragedy forces us to look.
Silence Leads to Violence
Mitić’s film holds up a mirror to all of us: parents, teachers, institutions, communities. It asks why a girl had to carry her trauma alone, why no one noticed, why no one asked, why no one listened. The film insists that what happened to Sara is not an isolated event but a symptom of a society that fails to protect its most vulnerable.Ultimately, 17 reveals a painful truth: when we foster a culture of silence, we create the conditions for violence. When we refuse to see young people for who they are, we leave them with no choice but to hide behind a socially acceptable image.
On the Q&A session on the stage stood three young ladies Kosara Mitić, the director and the two leading actress Eva Kostić and Martina Danilovska that showed once again that the female voices will speak louder than ever and stand for themselves despite all the stereotypes that they need to break in.
February 2026
