Teona Strugar Mitevska’s latest film God Exists, Her Name is Petrunia will vie for the Golden Bear at the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival as part of its official competition.

After its international premiere in Berlin on Feb. 10, the film will be screened seven more times during the Berlinale, which starts Feb. 7 and runs through Feb. 17.

According to the official press release, this is the first time since Milcho Manchevski’s Before the Rain that a Macedonian movie has made it to an A-list film festival’s official selection.

Starring Zorica Nusheva and Labina Mitevska, the film was inspired by a true story: In 2014, a woman in the city of Shtip was the first female in Macedonia to retrieve the cross cast on the waters by a priest in an annual religious ritual believed to bring good luck.

Mitevska, the director, says the story sheds light on the challenges a woman faces in a male-dominated system.

Slated for a March release in Macedonia, the movie will also be shown in cinemas across France. It will have its French premiere on April 26.

God Exists, Her Name is Petrunia is a Macedonian-French-Belgian-Slovenian-Croatian coproduction supported by the Macedonian Film Agency and Eurimages.

It was produced by Labina Mitevska for Sisters and Brother Mitevski Production and written by Elma Tataragich and Teona Strugar Mitevska.