{"id":308365,"date":"2026-03-01T19:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T19:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/308365\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T19:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T19:37:08","slug":"sirat-review-an-assault-on-the-senses-mind-and-emotions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/308365\/","title":{"rendered":"Sir\u0101t review \u2014 ‘an assault on the senses, mind, and emotions’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking for his missing daughter at a rave in Morocco, middle-aged dad Luis (Sergi L\u00f3pez) joins forces with a rag-tag band of hedonistic party-goers to continue the search.<\/p>\n

In Muslim theology, \u201csir\u0101t\u201d denotes the razor-thin bridge between paradise and hell.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a tightrope that\u00a0French-Spanish\u00a0filmmaker Oliver Laxe (Mimosas, Fire Will Come) not only walks but practically tap-dances along in his uncategorisable\u00a0mind-blower\u00a0of a movie. Part adventure yarn, part trippy odyssey, part meditation on loss, part promo for the joys of dancing, Laxe takes disparate elements and weaves them together with maximalist confidence. The result is a film that is vital, unpredictable, brilliantly made, hard to describe, even more difficult to forget.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sir\u0101t\u00a0starts with a jolt of energy. Against ochre-coloured cliffs in Morocco, a full-on rave begins, a desert\u00a0dance-floor\u00a0of writhing bodies lost in music, caught in a trap, everybody in the moment without a selfie in sight \u2014 it\u2019s such an immersive, intoxicating set-piece you might well feel the need to hydrate.<\/p>\n

Low comedy \u2014\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0a gag involving LSD and excrement \u2014 mingles with high-minded themes around the fates, the universe, the apocalypse.<\/p>\n

In this happy, inclusive vibe of druggy abandon, Luis (Sergi L\u00f3pez, terrific), a middle-aged dad, and his young son Esteban (Bruno N\u00fa\u00f1ez) are wandering through the throng looking for Luis\u2019 daughter Mar, who has been missing for five months. The pair meet a group of misfit ravers \u2014 Stefania Gadda, Joshua Liam Henderson, Jade Oukid, Richard \u2018Bigui\u2019 Bellamy and Tonin Janvier playing versions of their real selves \u2014 and learn of a mythical second rave. As the military move in to declare a state of emergency, Luis and Esteban follow this band of \u2018voyagers\u2019 as they break away from the army convoy and head for freedom, more dancing, and hopefully Mar.<\/p>\n

At this point,\u00a0Sir\u0101t\u00a0turns into The Wages\u00a0Of\u00a0Fear<\/a> at 150 bpm. What follows is a nerve-jangling trek across treacherous mountain passes and impossible-to-cross rivers in punishing heat, Luis driving a barely roadworthy family car and forming an uneasy alliance with the revellers. Low comedy \u2014\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0a gag involving LSD and excrement \u2014 mingles with high-minded themes around the fates, the universe, the apocalypse. \u201cIs this what the\u00a0end of the world feels like?\u201d asks one character. \u201cIt\u2019s been the end of the world for a long time,\u201d comes the reply.<\/p>\n

Sir\u0101t\u00a0is motoring along as an exciting, offbeat, family-is-where-you-find-it road movie played out to\u00a0Kangding\u00a0Ray\u2019s banging bass-heavy score (Laia Casanovas\u2019 sound design is also a marvel, turning ambient desert noises into a symphony). Then, around halfway through, Laxe and co-screenwriter Santiago\u00a0Fillol\u00a0pull\u00a0the rug out from both the characters and the movie completely, delivering an almighty gut-punch, then doubling down by accelerating the intensity even further to a shattering climax. The open-ended conclusion might frustrate some, but Laxe handles all the twists and turns with such assurance that it adds another, more legal high to the riveting mix: the thrill of fantastic filmmaking.<\/p>\n

So intense you\u2019ll want to scarper but so riveting you can\u2019t leave, Sir\u0101t is an assault on the senses, mind and emotions. If only all movies took swings this bold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Looking for his missing daughter at a rave in Morocco, middle-aged dad Luis (Sergi L\u00f3pez) joins forces with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,409,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-308365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}