Sirât

I'm certain it would have made my top ten films of 2025 if I had seen it sooner. It has haunted me since I watched it. This Spanish film is set in the desert of Northern Africa at the start of WWIII - so like any day now, ha. Without giving anything away, it's kind of like William Friedkin's Sorcerer mashed up with Max Mad: Fury Road, but the arty, indie version. It follows Luis (Sergi López) and his young son as they search for their respective missing daughter/sister. Where Luis thinks he might find her is at a pop-up desert rave - an eclectic swarm of tattooed punk weirdos thrashing to the pounding beats of electronic music. A small subgroup of misfits suggest to Luis that he might find his daughter at the next scheduled rave. He and his son decide to follow this ragtag crew into nomad territory and it's precarious. Perhaps it's all  the sand, but it reminded me of the Australian film, Wake in Fright - there is an unhinged human element at play here. And then Sirât takes a turn I wasn't expecting and I was left gutted. Writer and director Oliver Laxe shot the film using mostly non-actors and they are all wonderful - it gives it an authenticity, a gritty realism that it might not have otherwise. The images, the music, and the characters will stick to you like sand after a trip to the cinematic beach. Sirât might not be the vacation you want but it's the one you need. Catch it in the theatre if you can (Mayfair or ByTwone) or rent it from Movies 'N Stuff.