Sirât | Dir: Óliver Laxe | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Louis (Sergi López) and his young son look out of place as they wander through the crowded rave in the middle of the Moroccan Desert. Surrounded by the stunning panorama of towering red cliffs, the dancers stomp in the dust to the pulsating rhythm of the hypnotic electronic music, while the pair hand out leaflets showing the daughter and sister who went missing months ago at a similar rave.
Eventually the father and son decide to follow a group of people in search of another rave, deeper into the treacherous wilderness but when the challenges of the perilous journey intensify, the focus changes to having to just survive the ordeal.
Sirât is a huge audio experience as well as being a visual spectacle, and it needs to be seen on the big screen with surround sound for maximum impact. The film has already earned a reputation as both the best and the worst film you could possibly see this year, and the less the viewer knows about it, the more intense the experience.
The French-born, Spanish filmmaker has a reputation for pushing boundaries, and his daring film layers sound and image to completely overwhelm the audience and draw them into the unforgettable, but startlingly confronting experience.
Filmed on the location of an actual rave, and using non-actors, the film could be analysed for layers of existential meaning, particularly as Sirât is an Islamic concept where every soul must cross through hell after death to reach paradise. But it is better not to decode the film and just let it permeate your body and mind.
Director Óliver Laxe explains, “What we are looking for in life and in art is ecstasy, enthusiasm, rapture, this moment of transcendence. I wanted the spectator to be surrounded by the images, by the current of images, so that we get lost through it.”
Experience Sirât at UWA’s Somerville from Monday 19 January until Sunday 25 January.
Lezly Herbert
