“A powerful reminder that at the heart of Europe’s immigrant debate there are still people.”

One of the routes that migrants follow in their quest to reach the EU takes them through the mountains of the Balkans. It is a cruel and inhumane passage, controlled by criminal organizations and with the borders being guarded by brutality and violent rejections. In his debut feature Balcanica Italian director Nicola Sorcinelli shows the hardship migrants have to go through to reach their promised land, from physical injuries after their gruelling trek on foot to severe beatings at the hands of thugs who may or may not be actual border guards. But there is compassion and empathy along the road too, from volunteers who do still have an ounce of humanity left. A small film about small victories over frustration and despair, Balcanica is a promising debut that should play well at home by virtue of its Italian star, and shows an interesting, if not wholly successful visual approach.

Orchestra conductor Nazar (former Silver Bear winner Babak Karimi) and his son Jalil (Ivar Wafaei), a tuba player, have fled Afghanistan after the Taliban banned music. They have made it past Turkey, and are now crossing the foggy Balkan mountain range in the hopes of reaching Italy. They are in contact with their cousin Quasim via barely charged cellphones, ostensibly because he has arranged a concert for them, a ruse Jalil has conjured up to keep his dad moving. After a brutal beating in the woods they find shelter in an abandoned factory, along with other migrants trying to follow the same route. They meet a Pakistani cricket player, Habib (Prince Chughtai), with whom Jalil can converse in English, and who informs them about the lay of the land. He himself has tried to cross several times, the bruises on his back bearing witness to it.

When Greta (Matilda De Angelis) shows up – a somewhat naively optimistic doctor working for an organization of volunteers trying to help migrants – Nazar is wary of her but lets her treat his frozen foot on Jalil’s insistence. She is still fresh-faced and thinks she can make a big difference, while her seasoned colleague Edoardo (Giovanni Toscano) tries to bring her down to earth. Still, she continues to be a helping hand to Jalil and Nazar and the small community sheltering in these mountains, making a human connection out of compassion and a genuine interest. As Nazar’s condition worsens, their window for getting across the border narrows, to the frustration and despair of not just Jalil, but of Greta as well. Their paths have become so intertwined that Greta makes a desperate choice which rationality would not have led her to, but which her heart says is the right thing to do.

On the back of two excellent performances by De Angelis and Wafaei (sadly Karimi is given a bit of a one-dimensional character), Sorcinelli crafts a simple but effective human story. His film tackles a hot button topic that divides a continent, and shows that behind all the rhetoric on both sides there are actual human beings who find themselves in terrible predicaments no matter what you think of the broader issue. He focuses solely on two people who have decided to seek their freedom and are willing to go through hell for it, and one woman willing to simply help and at least ease their journey. The antagonists remain faceless and mostly off-screen. The one moment, early in the film, when father and son meet them, the camera pans up to not just spare viewers the violence, but also to not give evil a face, which makes this scene hit even harder; the sound of the two men being pummeled is loud and clear enough.

Sorcinelli’s visual choices further place the three characters front and center. Director of photography Damjan Radovanović shoots virtually every scene with a short lens, stretching the image but also, because the film has many close-ups and mid-shots, immersing the viewer in the emotion of the characters on screen. This works for the most part, although in interior scenes it can be visually off-putting; outside, it emphasizes the emptiness of the landscape. Add to that the dreary weather, and the hopelessness of Jalil and Nazar’s situation is hammered home. Where the film’s idealist heart lies is clear, although Toscano’s character adds a dose of realism to counter Greta’s idealism. A musical motif that Jalil hums to Greta, and which is repeated several times to underline Greta’s emotional connection to the men, is a beautifully simple way to characterize her empathy. With Balcanica, Sorcinelli has made a timely and topical story about human compassion that is a powerful reminder that at the heart of Europe’s immigrant debate there are still people.