DRAMA; 1hr 55min (Spanish, French, English and Arabic with subtitles)
STARRING: Sergi López, Bruno Núñez
Leap of faith: from left, Núñez and López
A father (López as Luis) and his son (Núñez as Esteban) instantly register as fish out of water amid the crush of throwback hippie ravers in a northern Morocco desert. Luis, dumpy, greying and variously worn out, is too old to be cutting loose, while 12-year-old Esteban, resigned to seeing whatever this is through, is too young.
The pair are searching for their missing daughter and sister, Mar, passing out leaflets to unhelpful strangers. The hypnotic pulse of the music has melded the crowd into a trippy hive mind that fractures when the military arrives to poop its party. Luckily, there happens to be another party down south, to which a diehard group is headed despite the political chaos of the country. Luis and Esteban tag along, their need for Mar too pressing to let her go.
On they all plough through the dusty, relentless heat. When the title of the film looms some 33 minutes in like a belated warning sign, it’s as good a moment as any to reflect that, per Google, “In Islam, Sirāt primarily refers to the bridge that spans over Hell … a crucial, final test of a person’s faith and deeds.”
Amen. Nowhere does the perennial truth of journey as destination carry a heavier weight than in the desolate wilds of director Óliver Laxe and co-writer Santiago Fillol’s vertiginous descent. Its convoy in their chunky vans — Tonin, Jade, Josh, Steff and Bigui are perfectly cast non-pro actors, essentially playing versions of themselves — must hang tight through an alien terrain whose beauty masks a peril that detonates by degrees in a series of lethal shocks. For Luis, already irrevocably scarred by loss, their cost is incalculable.
