Nicola Sorcinelli's feature directorial debut, *Balcanica*, will have its world premiere in the Venice Days sidebar of the Venice Film Festival, with The Hollywood Reporter exclusively unveiling its first teaser trailer. The film tells a fictional story of Afghan conductor Nazar and his tuba-playing son Jalil, forced to flee after music is banned in Afghanistan, whose journey along the Balkan route towards Italy intersects with an Italian doctor named Greta. Sorcinelli says the project grew from a long-standing anger at how freedom can be suppressed, shaped by his grandmother's memories of 1940s resistance and by news of Afghanistan's music ban.

The cast is led by Matilda De Angelis and Berlin Silver Bear winner Babak Karimi, alongside Ivar Wafaei and Giovanni Toscano. Sorcinelli co-wrote the script with Andrea Brusa, with cinematography by Damjan Radovanović and editing by Ian Degrassi. It is produced by Nightswim and Wildside (a Fremantle company), co-produced with This and That Productions and Antitalent, with m-appeal handling world sales and Fandango distributing in Italy.