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WATCH: Maltese Band’s Music Featured In Award-Winning Bulgarian Film Promising ‘A Mash-Up Of Goonies And Back To The Future’

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Fans of Malta’s alternative music scene will definitely recognise the unmistakable name of No Snow / No Alps. With a long list of radio hits, acclaimed releases and different genre experimentations spanning well over a decade, the band has definitely had its fair share of Malta’s limelight. Now, however, they’re set for a debut on a bigger stage… and the big screen!

The Maltese band had eight of their original songs used in Runaway Smartphone, a Bulgarian film that’s already winning some prestigious international awards

“A few years ago, we were approached by this Bulgarian movie company so that they use our music for the soundtrack of this new movie they where going to start shooting,” NSNA frontman Nick Morales told Lovin Malta.

“They used some of our most popular tracks like Elizabeth, I and Far Into The Night, but we also wrote a couple of instrumental tracks just for the movie,” he added.

In a series of Instagram stories, Nick Morales excitedly shared experiences from Bulgaria with friends and fans as he went up for the film’s premiere

Runaway Smartphone tells the story of three friends who unite to raise funds for one of their siblings’ treatment. With the unlikely help of an unusual smartphone-turned-time machine, they travel through the years on the search for buried treasure.

“It’s a mash-up of the Goonies and Back To The Future, so it’s an all-round very entertaining family flick,” Nick told Lovin Malta. And amidst all the fun and chaos, lies the awesome sonic contribution of the Maltese band.

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Nick revealed that in the process, he ended up getting a small part in the film himself

“When I met the director and we were discussing the movie, he came up with the idea to also give me a small part in the movie playing myself in a past life in the 18th century as a Maltese pirate furban,” he told Lovin Malta.

“For me, it was an amazing experience to work in a professional environment for my first acting role which was totally unexpected. Who knows, I might give my acting career a shot!”

Runaway Smartphone cost €2 million to make, and has already started winning some prestigious international awards

At AFI Cannes, the Bulgarian film took home the award for Best International Children’s Film, also winning Best Producer and Best Actor (for Simeon Filipov) at the West Coast International Film Festival and Best Producer at the Sochi International Film Festival and Awards (SIFFA).

As it stands, Runaway Smartphone will be screening in cinemas all over Bulgaria as of next week, but it’s also being dubbed in English in Hollywood, with plans to have it screened in many other countries – alongside back home in Malta – also in the works.

“It’s something that we’ll definitely cherish for the rest of our lives,” Nick concluded. “It was an amazing experience to be part of something so professional and to work with totally passionate people. And hearing our songs on the big screen? It’s a feeling completely different from anything else.”

Tag a fan of Malta’s music scene!

READ NEXT: 13 Essential Acts To Check Out If You Want To Get Into Malta’s Alternative Music Scene

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).

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