‘Housekeeping For Beginners’ Director Goran Stolevski On Creating a True Queer Family for North Macedonia’s Oscar Submission

In 2022, Australian and North Macedonian filmmaker Goran Stolevski made his narrative feature debut with the chilling supernatural work You Won’t Be Alone, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to great acclaim and was Australia’s official Oscar submission for the International Feature category. Earlier this year, the out writer-director’s second feature, Of an Age, was released and proved to be one of the most intense and visceral queer films in recent years.

The prolific Stolevski began his career creating quite a number of short films as well as directing three episodes of the Australian teen drama Nowhere Boys. His current film, Housekeeping for Beginners, is North Macedonia’s 2023 Oscar submission and will be released by Focus Features, date TBD. The film explores the world of a gaggle of gays and lesbians, including Roma people, living together in one home and doing their best to survive in a racist and homophobic society.

Dita (Anamaria Marinca of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) runs the house. Her girlfriend Sauda (Alina Serban) has a terminal illness and decisions must be made about Dita possibly raising Sauda’s two children (she has never wanted to be a mother). Among the other residents are Toni (Vladimir Tintor) a 30-something gay man who brings home Ali (Samson Selim) a gay teen, who immediately moves in and cares for the younger girls.

Stolevski has a way with an ensemble, creating an authentic familial energy onscreen that is palpable.

Awards Daily was delighted to Zoom Chat with Stolevski (Video below) about his new film.