Original score from the 2025 documentary feature film directed by Hodges Usry, produced by Ventureland, released by Netflix.

THE STORY: Monaco, 1999: Billionaire banker Edmond Safra is found dead in his penthouse. The documentary examines the puzzling circumstances surrounding this wealthy financier’s murder.

THE SCORE: “The score for Murder in Monaco was conceived as a modern, chamber-scale response to a complex true-crime narrative. It is anchored in Ted Maher’s psychological and emotional journey, tracing his path from sudden arrest through imprisonment and escape, to eventual sentencing. From the outset, the music was designed to balance gravity with wit and momentum, reflecting not only the seriousness of the events but also the film’s sense of intrigue and dark irony. Built around an edgy, contemporary string quartet recorded at Abbey Road, London, the score draws the audience into a world of wealth, glamour, and contradiction – a space where power, performance, and privilege blur the line between truth and theatre. The quartet acts as both narrator and conscience, chosen for its precision, intimacy, and capacity for psychological nuance. Rather than functioning as a traditional dramatic backdrop, it becomes a sharp storytelling engine, agile enough to move between suspicion, irony, and tension. Short rhythmic figures, pizzicato gestures, and restless ostinati drive the investigation forward, creating a sense of constant motion – a cat-and-mouse pursuit in which certainty remains perpetually out of reach. The quartet’s limited forces mirror the film’s confined settings and close interpersonal dynamics, while its rhythmic flexibility allows the music to shift fluidly between investigation, accusation, and consequence. Tension is sustained through subtle harmonic shifts and evolving textures, built through accumulation and restraint rather than overt display.” – Nainita Desai

THE COMPOSER: An acclaimed Emmy-winning composer with two additional Emmy nominations, Nainita Desai is an RTS and World Soundtrack Award 2021 winner of Discovery of the Year. Amongst various BAFTA, Oscar, and Emmy acclaimed productions, Nainita’s recent projects include the hit Netflix documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible for which her score earned a nomination for a Primetime Emmy, hit film The Deepest Breath (A24, Netflix) which earned Desai nomination for Best Original Score at the Critics’ Choice Awards and EA Originals Video Game Tales of Kenzera: Zau. Nainita has also scored Nautilus for AMC and ITV Drama The Tower Season 3, as well as landmark natural history series Earthsounds for Apple TV+ and James Cameron’s BBC / Nat Geo series Ocean Xplorers. Her other notable credits include Oscar nominated and BAFTA & Cannes winning feature doc For Sama, Sundance winning film The Reason I Jump and the Emmy nominated score for Body Parts.

RB26031 MURDER IN MONACO (Soundtrack from the Netflix Documentary)
Music Composed by NAINITA DESAI
Release date: January 16, 2026