The first time 15-year-old Ahmet (Arif Jakup) smiles broadly on-screen lives up to the cliché that someone’s infectious grin can light up a room. Amid the bright colors of an Edm festival happening in the middle of the forest, the teen with wistful eyes surrenders to an upbeat tune and to the crowd of young people around him. By that point, most viewers will already have been irremediably disarmed by “DJ Ahmet,” Georgi M. Unkovski’s music-soaked, delightfully humorous and unpretentiously stylish debut set in a remote North Macedonian village.

But that moment of enjoyment is only a brief, illusory respite from Ahmet’s laborious responsibilities herding sheep and caring for his kid brother Naim (Agush Agushev), the picture of innocence and adorableness, who hasn’t spoken since their mother died. From the onset, Unkovski introduces a rich soundtrack that mixes modern English-language songs with tracks specific to the region,...