DFS: Borders and Belonging: Sirât
The glorious, forbidding Moroccan desert and techno music provide the backdrop for a father looking for his missing daughter in this Oscar nominee for Best International Feature.
The glorious, forbidding Moroccan desert and techno music provide the backdrop for a father looking for his missing daughter in this Oscar nominee for Best International Feature.
A father (Sergi López) and his son arrive at a rave deep in the mountains of southern Morocco. They are searching for Mar—daughter and sister—who vanished months ago at one of these endless, sleepless parties. Surrounded by electronic music and a raw, unfamiliar sense of freedom, they hand out her photo again and again. Hope is fading, but they push through and follow a group of ravers heading to one last party in the desert. The natural hazards of the unforgiving (but cinematically majestic) wasteland run in counterpoint with man-made dangers as something like World War III unfolds in the background.
Although this desert thriller will bring Mad Max and John Ford's Westerns to mind, the film's undercurrent of desperation and emotional shocks carry the audience on an existential journey. Named after the razor-thin bridge that, in Islam, is said to pass over hell en route to paradise, Sirât is a visually stunning, emotionally charged tale. Winner of the Jury Prize in Cannes, French-born Galician director Oliver Laxe's fourth feature sealed his place as one of the new masters of cinema in the world.
Academy Award nominee for Best International Feature
