Sirāt film review: a hypnotic, apocalyptic and genuinely shocking rave odyssey

Raving can be religious. To hear diehards describe it, a packed dancefloor at its exuberant zenith represents a transcendent mix of escapism and ego death. It’s a place where time ceases to exist. The world could be ending outside the club and you would never know. Such hedonistic epiphanies might sound a bit “I went to Glastonbury but missed Rod Stewart because I ended up dancing for nine hours straight in the Mystic Pendragon grotto” but they still retain a ring of truth. There is something exhilarating, and even a little scary, about how loud, repetitive music can rewire your brain.

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This is the starting point for Sirāt, the Cannes-winning and now Oscar-nominated rave odyssey from Galician director Oliver Laxe that manages to be hypnotic, apocalyptic and genuinely shocking. It begins with a bunch of dusty roadies erecting a formidable wall of speakers in the sunbaked Moroccan desert, their efforts already pre-empted by a thumping bass-heavy soundtrack by Berlin-based techno artist Kangding Ray.

It is a far-flung open-air party that looks and sounds incredible, a crammed daylight bacchanal where everyone in the egalitarian crowd has the incongruous fashion accessories and scraggly abandon of a Mad Max extra. It would not seem strange if the Doof Warrior from Fury Road roared in with his cool flamethrower guitar. But instead we get a middle-aged sadsack in a sweaty T-shirt, gingerly threading his through the preoccupied throng to hand out Missing Person flyers. 

Via snatches of conversation we piece together that Luis (Sergi López, a long way from his sadistic stepfather in Guillermo del Toro’s dark 2006 fairytale Pan’s Labyrinth) is desperately searching for his daughter, who went to a similar dance party and never came back. He has spent the past few months ferrying his young son Esteban (Bruno Núñez Arjona) and their cute dog Papi round various raves in their minivan in a desperate effort to track her down.

The festivalgoers he talks to are sympathetic but the only potential lead Luis uncovers is that the next party will be further south, even deeper into the Saharan wilderness. Maybe his daughter would be headed there? When a military intervention brings the current rave to an abrupt halt, that slim half-hope is enough to convince Luis to follow a couple of beefy trucks that seem to know where they are going.

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At first, the grungy gang of misfits at the wheel try and get Luis to turn back. But they are charmed by Esteban and Pipa so grudgingly allow the family to tag along, even if their civilian vehicle seems ill-suited to the terrain.

It is during this phase that Sirāt suggests it might settle into something more narratively familiar than its trance-like opening: perhaps a bit of cautious campfire bonding between the stressed, conventional dad and his free-spirited guides, punctuated by stressful convoy sequences as they tackle risky river crossings and vertiginous mountain roads.

These sequences are all present and correct, albeit underpinned by a nagging sense that while these characters are off on their own adventure some geopolitical flare-up is causing financial chaos and yet more displacement in the “real” world, hinted at through radio reports and an increase in military activity.

But by its midpoint Sirāt has veered dramatically away from convention, delivering gut-punch moments that snaps its evocative title into focus (at the outset, we are told that “sirāt” is Arabic for a bridge between “hell and paradise” that is “narrower than a strand of hair and sharper than a sword”).

Some of its emotional extremes are the very definition of a bad trip, that sudden realisation that you are not only in genuine danger but are also physically and psychologically very far away from safe ground. 

The juxtaposition of primal bliss and existential howls of anguish makes for a bruising experience. Certainly Sirāt is one of the underdogs in the Best International Feature category at next month’s Oscars, where it competing against strong Best Picture candidates The Secret Agent and Sentimental Value.

But thanks to Kangding Ray’s all-encompassing soundtrack and its dizzying series of jaw-dropping escalations it feels like a future cult classic that has arrived fully formed.

Sirāt is in cinemas from 27 February

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