See Juliette Binoche and Morgan Freeman in Pulse-Pounding Trailer for Paradise Highway

Decades into her acclaimed career, Juliette Binoche is taking on a role unlike anything she's played before.

In her new thriller Paradise Highway, the Oscar winner, 58, plays a truck driver unwittingly tasked with trafficking a teenage girl across state lines. PEOPLE has an exclusive first look at the dramatic trailer for the film, which also stars Morgan Freeman, Frank Grillo, Cameron Monaghan, Hala Finley, Veronica Ferres and Christiane Seidel.

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The movie's two-minutes, 43-seconds-long trailer showcases the delicate — and dangerous — situation that plays out when Sally (Binoche) takes on a trafficking job to keep her imprisoned brother (Grillo) safe from a villainous gang within the prison's walls. Sally gets more than she bargained for when she realizes the cargo she's expected to transport is a teenage girl (Finley). Meanwhile, Freeman's FBI agent appears hot on the trail of the group seeking to harm Leila and resolves to do whatever he can to keep the girl and Sally, her newfound protector, safe.

"You don't understand," Sally says in the trailer when she's presented with Leila. "I don't take people."

"No way I can promise what will happen to your brother if you don't take the girl where she needs to go," says Claire (Seidel) in response.

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Sally and Leila take off on a life-threatening journey as Sally seeks to protect the girl from what appears to be a cross-state group of people threatening Leila's life, with firefights and street brawls teased throughout the trailer. Freeman and his FBI agent partner (Monaghan) similarly try to protect the two along the way; the trailer closes with Monaghan's character asking Freeman's why he joined the FBI in the first place.

"It doesn't matter why I joined," Freeman's character says. "It only matters what I do with it."

Paradise Highway is written and directed by Norwegian director Anna Gutto, who previously directed episodes of the Norwegian Netflix series Home for Christmas.

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"When I first read the script to Paradise Highway, I was traveling across America," Binoche tells PEOPLE about starring in the new film. "On the road, I felt very connected to the script like it was a sign I was so drawn into the story that I could not let it go. But how was I going to be able to play a truck driver?"

Binoche continues, explaining that she cherishes "this kind of a challenge" as an actress.

"So I dove into it. I was compelled by all the different themes that are close to my heart," she says. "Strong topics that transforms you and develop into strong characters in film."

Paradise Highway releases in theaters and on demand on July 29.