{"id":2016543,"date":"2025-09-12T11:54:50","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T11:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2016543"},"modified":"2025-09-12T11:54:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T11:54:50","slug":"euronews-cultures-film-of-the-week-sirat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/euronews-cultures-film-of-the-week-sirat\/","title":{"rendered":"Euronews Culture’s Film of the Week: ‘Sir\u0101t’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In Islamic eschatology, Sir\u0101t – the Arabic word for \u201cpath\u201d – is a narrow bridge between Paradise and Hell, one which all souls must cross after judgement day. It is \u201cas thin as a strand of hair and as sharp as the sharpest knife.\u201d<\/p>\n

That piece of information will be more useful for audiences coming into the world of Sir\u0101t than any logline ever could be. Nothing can prepare you for what French-born Spanish director \u00d3liver Laxe has in store for you with his bold and exhilarating new film, which won the Jury Prize at this year\u2019s Cannes Film Festival<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, here goes.<\/p>\n

Luis (Sergi L\u00f3pez) and his 12-year-old son Esteban (Bruno Nu\u00f1ez Arjona) are looking for Mar, their missing daughter and sister. She vanished five months prior and they haven\u2019t heard from her since.<\/p>\n

They arrive, with their dog Pipa, at an off-grid rave in the remote mountains of Morocco, a location which feels like a cross between Mad Max: Fury Road\u2019s Wasteland and that sweaty Zion party in The Matrix Reloaded. They proceed to search for Mar, passing around flyers with her image. When they stumble across a group of ravers – Jade (Jade\u00a0Oukid), Bigui (Richard Bellamy), Stef (Stefania Gadda), Tonin (Josh\u00a0January) and Josh (Joshua Liam Henderson) – the hedonistic bunch inform Luis and Esteban that another secret dance party is taking place soon in Mauritania. Mar could potentially be there.<\/p>\n

The rave is suddenly cut short by the arrival of armed forces, who are there to forcibly deport the revelers back to their home countries. The newly formed group of misfits manage to flee from the guards and head off deeper into the arid North African landscape.<\/p>\n

\"Sir\u0101t\"<\/span><\/div>\n

Sir\u0101t <\/span> – El Deseo – Pyramide Films <\/span><\/p>\n

The first half of Sir\u0101t is straightforward enough: a missing persons story unfolding into a road trip adventure. There are some subtle apocalyptic elements peppered into the story – mostly via the radio in one of the raver\u2019s converted trucks, informing us that World War III has been triggered and that the world we as audiences have just entered could be the beginning of the end times.<\/p>\n

But just when you\u2019ve settled into the rhythm of the missing-girl mystery set against the backdrop of the coming apocalypse, Laxe pulls the already-far-from-comfortable blanket away. The impact is initially jarring but utterly devastating. What seemed to be a modern reworking of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth morphs into\u00a0an existential road movie jolted into existence by tragedy and shocking twists.<\/p>\n

Divulging any more would be sacrilegious and not much is safe to say without taking away from the viewing experience. But again, here goes…<\/p>\n

\"Sir\u0101t\"<\/span><\/div>\n

Sir\u0101t <\/span> – El Deseo – Pyramide Films <\/span><\/p>\n

The acting by both\u00a0L\u00f3pez\u00a0and the non-professional actors portraying the anarcho-punk travelers\u00a0is pitch-perfect.<\/p>\n

Narratively, the screenplay by Laxe and Santiago Fillol deftly remains frugal when it comes to context and backstory, but pulls no punches when it comes to visceral\u00a0pivots. It\u2019s a cross between Henri-Georges Clouzot\u2019s Le salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear) and Samuel Beckett, with some “Heart of Darkness” thrown in there for hellish measure.<\/p>\n

Sir\u0101t also soars on a technical level. Laxe and cinematographer\u00a0Mauro Herce make the desert scenes both beautiful and oppressive, and the pulsating electro score by Kangding Ray not only adds further layers to the ominous mood but also genuinely captures the bacchanal vibe of the contemporary dance festival scene. Moreover, the way the speakers and subwoofers are filmed creates a visual pit you\u2019re drawn into, as if the oblivion can be witnessed through a Lynchian approach to lensing a totemic object. And if your Lynch radar is joyfully beeping right now, just wait until you see the ethereal, Lost Highway-echoing way the roads are filmed.<\/p>\n

\"Sir\u0101t\"<\/span><\/div>\n

Sir\u0101t <\/span> – El Deseo – Pyramide Films <\/span><\/p>\n

Both poetic and political, spiritual and nightmarish, Sir\u0101t becomes the purgatorial portrait of those faced with the fragility of life, desperately trying to find release in a crumbling world\u00a0in which we as a species are tiny players in a wider, crueler game.<\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re completely on board with the trip to oblivion or the ambitious swings\u00a0Sir\u0101t\u00a0takes, Laxe conjures such a dizzying and invigorating\u00a0trance that you\u2019re sure to take this film home with you. Its impact will reverberate in your mind and bones, and will lead you to answer two questions asked in the movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this what the end of the world feels like?\u201d<\/p>\n

In all likelihood, yes.<\/p>\n

“Is there still hope?”<\/p>\n

Maybe. Whether we can course-correct and not topple over that thin and sharp bridge may still be\u00a0up to us.<\/p>\n

Sir\u0101t premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. It is out in Spain, Portugal, France and Germany and continues its theatrical rollout this year. It heads to the BFI London Film Festival next month and will hit US theatres in January 2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Islamic eschatology, Sir\u0101t – the Arabic word for \u201cpath\u201d – is a narrow bridge between Paradise and Hell, one which all souls must cross after judgement day. It is \u201cas thin as a strand of hair and as sharp as the sharpest knife.\u201d That piece of information will be more useful for audiences coming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2016544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[369889,326557,369890,369885,369886,364462,369887,369888,369891,369884],"class_list":["post-2016543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-bruno-nunez-arjona","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-islamic-eschatology","tag-joshua-liam-henderson","tag-judgement-day","tag-oliver-laxe","tag-paradise-and-hell","tag-pyramide-films","tag-richard-bellamy","tag-sergi-lopez"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Euronews-Cultures-Film-of-the-Week-Sirat.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2016543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2016544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2016543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2016543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2016543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}