Teona Strugar Mitevska is an award-winning writer and director. Her previous credits include “The Woman Who Brushed Off Her Tears,” “I Am from Titov Veles,” and “Veta.”

“When the Day Had No Name” will premiere at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival on February 14.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

TSM: “When the Day Had No Name” is a story of six teenage boys whose fishing trip ends with their deaths. I trace the last 24 hours of their lives, and through their story I paint a picture of the social, cultural, and political milieu they are part of.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

TSM: The story is inspired by a real life incident. In 2012 the bodies of four teenagers were found near a lake in the outskirts of Skopje. The way they were executed, it was in an almost ritual-like manner.

The loss of these innocent lives affected me profoundly. I tried to imagine their daily routine, their dreams, hopes, ways of being in the hours before their deaths.

I also wanted to paint a picture of a society divided on the basis of religion and ethnicity: Albanian versus Macedonian, Muslim against Christian. I wanted to put forward the atmosphere of violence the young generations have been growing up in. Violence induces violence, and death is certainly the final product of this.

W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?

TSM: I like something John Cassavetes said once — not that I compare myself to him. It goes something like this: “It is not important what you think about the film immediately after: what is important is that you are left with something, and that maybe some years or decades later this something stays with you and leads you to something more.”

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

TSM: Casting the boys was quite an ordeal. Choosing the right ones was difficult, because ultimately we were looking for a group of six that had the right energy to translate the life and essence of the story. Once the choices were made the next stage came: working with them, cultivating their potential, and controlling their wild side.

Teenagers are such a mystery, dealing with [all of the sides of their personalities] effectively, oh gosh, what a challenge, especially in the second part of the story, where all six are inside the same frame and within a very confined space most of the time.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

TSM: In a way one can say that we are lucky in Europe. Each country has state funding in the form of a Film Fund and then to complement the budget we do co-productions by applying to the next door neighbor country’s film fund or to a film fund of a country where a film professional you would like to work with comes from. And then there is Eurimage, a European-based financing platform that completes the last 25 percent of the funding.

It sounds quite complicated, and it is, but it works. It has permitted film directors who don’t make necessarily commercially-[oriented] cinema to have their films made, that means many women filmmakers too.

I don’t want to paint a picture that it is so easy to make films in Europe. It remains a struggle. I make a film every four to five years. This is the amount of time I need to gather the finances and apply to the funds, which includes lots of rejections, but it is all part of the process, isn’t it?

W&H: What does it mean for you to have your film play at Berlin?

TSM: A Macedonian film is not such a hot item, distribution wise. My last film that was well distributed was “I Am from Titov Veles.” Before that there was Milcho Manchevski’s “Before the Rain” and that is that for Macedonian cinema.

So, being at Berlinale is the best opportunity for your film to be seen and possibly distributed in any way, shape, or form.

W&H: What’s the best advice you’ve received?

TSM: I was a rebellious teenager once, and growing up in Yugoslavia was quite an ordeal if you were a little bit different. The system enticed sameness on every level. I once asked my father what should I do about this, and his words were very precise and vivid.

He said, “There are two paths in our life: the path of following the flock, which will make your life easy and comfortable, and the other path, your personal one, that only you take, which is hard, steep, and full of uncertainty, but [is] ultimately sincere and true.”

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

TSM: I read an article where Maren Ade, the director of “Toni Erdmann,” said: “If Tarantino can make a long film, why shouldn’t I?” I agree, so I say to all women directors everywhere: Do everything men dare to do and women don’t. Personally, it took me turning 40 in order to relentlessly dare all; others don’t need to wait so long.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

TSM: Lucrecia Martel’s “The Headless Woman” is the Bible to me, so brave in form and strong in the experience it delivers. Using the cinematic form so skillfully, pushing the boundaries to deliver so intensively the inner life of the main character is the essence of our work as filmmakers. Using the form to elevate the context is the best cinema can offer. She makes no concessions, and in my eyes she is a revolutionary of the cinematic form.

Another film by a woman filmmaker I respect greatly is “Pál Adrienn” by Ágnes Kocsis. I appreciate the observational quality, patience, and respect for her characters and their predicament. There is a certain maturity in Kocsis’s work that is a revelation to me, something I admire and would like to achieve.

W&H: Have you seen opportunities for women filmmakers increase over the last year due to the increased attention paid to the issue? If someone asked you what you thought needed to be done to get women more opportunities to direct, what would be your answer?

TSM: Yes, women direct more and that’s commendable. We are definitely moving in the right direction.

Our next fight is distribution: To make it possible for our films to be distributed and seen.