Sirât

Sirât offers the tragedy of a father (Sergi López), accompanied by his son (Bruno Núñez Arjona), on an ill-fated search for his missing daughter. Their journey starts at a rave in the middle of the southern Moroccan desert where they decide to follow a group of ravers (Stefania Gadda, Richard 'Bigui' Bellamy, Jade Oukid, Tonin Janvier, and Joshua Liam Herderson) off the beaten path to another rave where they hope to finding the missing piece of their family.

Choosing to cast non-actors for all the roles except Luis and his son, each chosen on their physical look and personality, helps give the film a different feel that Oliver Laxe leans into relying on the tension of each moment and more emotional reaction than dialogue to move the story forward. Where the lack of more traditional actors could be an obstacle to overcome, the film instead turns it into a strength allowing for the natural interactions and reactions of each to fill the small caravan of travelers.

A critical hit, Sirât may not be everyone's cup of tea as the slow-paced plot takes a bit to get going, but once on the road things pick up with swings of distrust and commeraderie and ultimately tragedy as their journey deeper into the desert and high above on mountain cliffs offers disaster after disaster making you wonder if any of them have a chance to make it out alive and how many victims the desert might claim.

• Title: Sirât
• IMDb: link