Sirāt

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

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Oliver Laxe (“Fire Will Come”) directs the genre bending film “Sirāt.” This excellent eerie and compelling film is rich with atmosphere, character and suspense. Like a short story from Paul Bowles, the film is about the comings and goings of people from far away, detailing their dreams and anxieties. With a focus of exotic richness, the film also has qualities of a nightmare that is both quirky and difficult to define.

In the Moroccan desert, Luis (Sergi López) is searching for his missing daughter with his young son Esteban (Bruno Núñez Arjona).

The two find themselves in the middle of a crazed music festival— a 2 day rave— and they are making no progress. The two of them are bumped and jostled like a ball in a pinball machine. The droning and synthetic wall of sound vibrates against the impassive mountainous rocks of the desert.

Luis persistently questions a group of anarchist / hippie / punk rockers: a tattooed man Bigui (Richard Bigui Bellamy) Josh (Joshua Liam Henderson) Stef (Stefania Gadda) Jade (Jade Oukid) and Tonin (Tonin Janvier). Luis convinces them to let him follow them to the next rave, hoping to see locate his daughter.

Luis drives over one treacherous trail after another, at one point convincing them to help in crossing a deep pond.

Somehow Luis makes it, nearly fainting from hunger and heat.

Through the episodes, Luis learns that the group is nihilistic. After all, NATO has struck some country in violation of human rights and or war crimes.

Circumstances are nearly at World War.

Sergi López is superb as the deeply suffering father. But every role here is vivid with the eccentric emphasis of a Roald Dahl character.

The Moroccan dessert and the barren neutral ochre land is a character in itself.

The film falls into circumstances one does not expect with unsentimental percussive blows.

One part “The Treasure of Sierra Madre” (1947), a bit of William Friedkin’s “Sorcerer” (1977) as well as George Miller ala Mad Max, this film is impactful, explosive, jarring, jittery and all emotional.

Apoplectic, strangely celebratory, and joyful in terror and trouble, this film illustrates an Apocalyptic rave with equal horizons of horror and hope.

Write Ian at ianfree11@yahoo.com