Euronews Culture's Film of the Week: 'Sirāt' - Óliver Laxe's bleak and invigorating trip to oblivion

In Islamic eschatology, Sirāt - nan Arabic connection for “path” - is simply a constrictive span betwixt Paradise and Hell, 1 which each souls must transverse aft judgement day. It is “as bladed arsenic a strand of hairsbreadth and arsenic crisp arsenic nan sharpest knife.”

That portion of accusation will beryllium much useful for audiences coming into nan world of Sirāt than immoderate logline ever could be. Nothing tin hole you for what French-born Spanish head Óliver Laxe has successful shop for you pinch his bold and exhilarating caller film, which won nan Jury Prize astatine this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Still, present goes.

Luis (Sergi López) and his 12-year-old boy Esteban (Bruno Nuñez Arjona) are looking for Mar, their missing girl and sister. She vanished 5 months anterior and they haven’t heard from her since.

They arrive, pinch their canine Pipa, astatine an off-grid rave successful nan distant mountains of Morocco, a location which feels for illustration a transverse betwixt Mad Max: Fury Road’s Wasteland and that sweaty Zion statement successful The Matrix Reloaded. They proceed to hunt for Mar, passing astir flyers pinch her image. When they stumble crossed a group of ravers - Jade (Jade Oukid), Bigui (Richard Bellamy), Stef (Stefania Gadda), Tonin (Josh January) and Josh (Joshua Liam Henderson) - nan hedonistic bunch pass Luis and Esteban that different concealed creation statement is taking spot soon successful Mauritania. Mar could perchance beryllium there.

The rave is abruptly trim short by nan presence of equipped forces, who are location to forcibly deport nan revelers backmost to their location countries. The recently formed group of misfits negociate to fly from nan guards and caput disconnected deeper into nan arid North African landscape.

The first half of Sirāt is straightforward enough: a missing persons communicative unfolding into a roadworthy travel adventure. There are immoderate subtle apocalyptic elements peppered into nan communicative - mostly via nan power successful 1 of nan raver’s converted trucks, informing america that World War III has been triggered and that nan world we arsenic audiences person conscionable entered could beryllium nan opening of nan extremity times.

But conscionable erstwhile you’ve settled into nan hit of nan missing-girl enigma group against nan backdrop of nan coming apocalypse, Laxe pulls nan already-far-from-comfortable broad away. The effect is initially jarring but utterly devastating. What seemed to beryllium a modern reworking of nan Orpheus and Eurydice story morphs into an existential roadworthy movie jolted into beingness by calamity and shocking twists.

Divulging immoderate much would beryllium sacrilegious and not overmuch is safe to opportunity without taking distant from nan viewing experience. But again, present goes...

The acting by both López and nan non-professional actors portraying nan anarcho-punk travelers is pitch-perfect.

Narratively, nan screenplay by Laxe and Santiago Fillol deftly remains frugal erstwhile it comes to discourse and backstory, but pulls nary punches erstwhile it comes to visceral pivots. It’s a transverse betwixt Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Le salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear) and Samuel Beckett, pinch immoderate "Heart of Darkness" thrown successful location for hellish measure.

Sirāt besides soars connected a method level. Laxe and cinematographer Mauro Herce make nan godforsaken scenes some beautiful and oppressive, and nan pulsating electro people by Kangding Ray not only adds further layers to nan ominous temper but besides genuinely captures nan bacchanal vibe of nan modern creation show scene. Moreover, nan measurement nan speakers and subwoofers are filmed creates a ocular pit you’re drawn into, arsenic if nan oblivion tin beryllium witnessed done a Lynchian attack to lensing a totemic object. And if your Lynch radar is joyfully beeping correct now, conscionable hold until you spot nan ethereal, Lost Highway-echoing measurement nan roads are filmed.

Both poetic and political, belief and nightmarish, Sirāt becomes nan purgatorial image of those faced pinch nan fragility of life, desperately trying to find merchandise successful a crumbling world in which we arsenic a type are mini players successful a wider, crueler game.

Whether you’re wholly connected committee pinch nan travel to oblivion aliases nan eager swings Sirāt takes, Laxe conjures specified a dizzying and invigorating trance that you’re judge to return this movie location pinch you. Its effect will resound successful your mind and bones, and will lead you to reply 2 questions asked successful nan movie.

“Is this what nan extremity of nan world feels like?”

In each likelihood, yes.

"Is location still hope?"

Maybe. Whether we tin course-correct and not topple complete that bladed and crisp span whitethorn still be up to us.

Sirāt premiered astatine this year's Cannes Film Festival. It is retired successful Spain, Portugal, France and Germany and continues its theatrical rollout this year. It heads to nan BFI London Film Festival adjacent period and will deed US theatres successful January 2026.

Video editor • Theo Farrant