With its title referring to the dangerous so-called “Balkan Route” from western Asia into Europe, Nicola Sorcinelli’s debut feature, Balcanica, is the latest in a line of films about the refugee experience at a time when violence against migrants is reaching a new high. Featuring a screenplay by the director and Andrea Brusa, the film has had its world premiere in Venice’s Giornate degli Autori.

Tuba player Jalil (Ivar Wafaei) and his conductor father Nazar (Babak Karimi, part of the acting ensemble that won the Silver Bear for A Separation) are artisans who have left Afghanistan after music is banned, leaving them without a livelihood. (A solemn late-film tuba solo – music by Michele Braga – becomes a careful nod to the characters’ own profession.) Looking to reach Italy, they are attacked at the border and find refuge in a makeshift camp, aided by young humanitarian doctor Greta (a strong performance by Matilda De Angelis) as Nazar grows increasingly ill. In this world, as in life, migrants are repeatedly – and often fatally – beaten by violent border guards who prevent them from crossing; this fictional story could just as well have been a documentary in its commitment to a grounded tale.

The cinematography by Damjan Radovanović, too, reflects this impulse. The camera stays close to its characters in long, wandering takes, mimicking a non-fiction feel. What really catches the eye is the use of an overly wide-angled lens in certain shots, which distorts the environment around Sorcinelli’s characters – as if there is something unnatural that is omnipresent around them. The film’s use of lighting is also particularly striking, where the textures of the decaying camp and the desolate nature that surrounds them are illuminated artfully by strong colours, from the fading blue of the sky to the bold orange of a fire.

The story begins to reveal the divide between Nazar’s idealism and Jalil’s understanding of what lies ahead. However, Balcanica struggles to escape the binds of some over-explanatory dialogue and a lack of connection between characters. Motivations are present, yet the narrative momentum moves at a slow pace for its running time of fewer than 90 minutes, leaving the viewer more detached than expected. The movie ends on a hopeful note tinged with uncertainty: still a lucky fate, perhaps, for those seeking the same route towards a new life.

Balcanica is an Italian-Serbian-Croatian co-production between Nightswim and Wildside (a Fremantle company), in co-production with This and That Productions and Antitalent, in association with M74 and Nieminen Film. m-appeal holds the rights to the film’s world sales.