Project

Italian Title: Voices from the Game
English Title: Voices from the Game
Director: Barbara Beltramello

Long Line

“Voices from the Game” is a journey. A journey that takes us from Turkey to the border between Croatia and Slovenia. It is the same journey undertaken by migrants who, for various reasons, are forced to leave their home countries and set out on the Balkan route.

“Voices from the Game” is a journey. A journey that takes us from Turkey to the border between Croatia and Slovenia. It is the same journey undertaken by migrants who, for various reasons, are forced to leave their country of origin and travel along the Balkan route.

Synopsis

Voices and images of various landscapes: these are the two simple elements that make up the documentary “Voices from the Game.” Cities, forests, roads, streams, the sea, refugee camps, barbed wire. And the voices—of men and women—who tell us what the Balkan Route is like. An ordeal in which migrants, due to the living conditions they are forced to endure, gradually lose their dignity as human beings and find themselves living like pawns moved according to the needs and interests of the countries they pass through. A story told by those who experience it firsthand and by those who work along the route, accompanied by the landscapes that many of the migrants see with their own eyes. But in this documentary, the migrants are deliberately left faceless, for during their journey they pass by as invisible silhouettes—faceless, storyless bodies that no one bothers to look at.

Voices and images of various landscapes: these are the two simple elements that make up the documentary “Voices from the Game.” Cities, forests, roads, streams, the sea, refugee camps, barbed wire. And the voices—of men and women—who tell us what the Balkan route is like. An ordeal in which migrants, due to the living conditions they are forced to endure, gradually lose their dignity as human beings and find themselves living as pawns moved according to the needs and interests of the countries they pass through. A story told by those who experience it firsthand and those who work along the route, set against the landscapes that many of the migrants see with their own eyes. But in this documentary, the migrants are deliberately shown without faces, because during their journey they pass by like invisible silhouettes—faceless, storyless bodies that no one bothers to look at.

Director’s Notes

For this project, I decided to use mostly static images and landscapes photographed from a considerable distance. This physical distance helped me highlight the feeling that migrants experience every day during their long journey: they pass through country after country almost without being seen or noticed, except by those few people who feel compassion for the situation they face.

I chose not to show the faces of the people I interviewed because, unfortunately, many of the stories they told are ones shared by thousands of people. A landscape that is sometimes beautiful to look at, and stories that are often terrible to hear.

For this project, I decided to use mostly still images and landscapes captured from a considerable distance. This physical distance helped me highlight the everyday emotions of the migrants during their long journey—as they moved from country to country, almost unseen and unnoticed, except by the few people who felt compassion for their plight.

I chose not to show the faces of the people I interviewed because, unfortunately, many of the stories they told are all too familiar to thousands of people. The scenery is sometimes beautiful to look at, but the stories are often terrible to hear.

Runtime: 10:29
Director’s debut film: no
Screening format: MP4 resolution
Screenings at other festivals: no
Cinema, TV, and web screenings: no

Director: Barbara Beltramello
Italian
February 23, 1977
[email protected]
3470749032

Complete filmography:
Mother of Hope
Ruben Figueroa