When music becomes a crime, silence is no longer simply silence. For the orchestra conductor Nazar, who the legendary Babak Karimi will portray, and son Jalil, a tuba player, it becomes the beginning of a journey neither of them can afford to take lightly. Balcanica is set to be unveiled at the Venice Film Festival in the Giornate degli Autori competition.

Ahead of that debut, an exclusive first look at the film has commenced, offering a glimpse at a story where displacement and the stubborn persistence of music collide.

The first teaser, premiered exclusively by The Hollywood Reporter ahead of Balcanica’s Venice debut, places Nazar and Jalil in motion almost immediately. Their flight from Afghanistan is not presented as a conventional escape story, but as an uncertain passage across borders shaped by fear. The imagery moves between intimate father-son moments and the harsher physicality of their journey, establishing a film concerned as much with endurance as destination.

Behind the camera, Italian filmmaker Nicola Sorcinelli directs from a screenplay written with Andrea Brusa, with Damjan Radovanović handling cinematography and Ian Degrassi editing. Michele Braga provides the music, an especially pointed creative choice for a film built around musicians forced away from their craft.

Production brings together Italian, Serbian and Croatian companies, such as Nightswim, Wildside, This and That Productions and Antitalent Produkcija. The cast gives the story another axis. Babak Karimi plays Nazar, while Ivar Wafaei portrays Jalil, with Matilda De Angelis joining them as Greta, an Italian doctor encountered along the Balkan route.

The trailer, premiered by THR, hints that Greta is not merely a passing figure in their journey; the meeting between the three becomes the emotional fault line around which the film turns.

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Yet Balcanica is not only about crossing borders; it is about what displacement leaves behind in those who survive it.

Set against the backdrop of music being outlawed in Afghanistan, Balcanica follows Nazar and Jalil as they leave everything behind and travel toward Italy, hoping to find somewhere they can play again. Their route is deliberately uncertain, forcing the father and son to negotiate not only physical borders but the consequences of losing the life they once understood.

When they encounter Greta, their already precarious journey acquires another dimension, placing three strangers in a situation where personal choices carry consequences beyond themselves.

For Nicola Sorcinelli, his Venice debut is rooted in a longstanding preoccupation with freedom, censorship and the ways expression can be controlled. His grandmother’s memories of fighting for freedom during the 1940s informed that perspective, according to his statement via THR.

Balcanica arrives at the 83rd Venice Film Festival with music at the center of a story about having it taken away. Its trailer makes clear that the film is not simply following two refugees toward a new country; it is following what remains of them when the place they called home has made their very identity impossible. 

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What do you think of Balcanica's trailer? Let us know in the comments.