‘Sirât’ Review: Oliver Laxe Grapples with the Meaning of Sound, Sand and the Cosmos
CANNES — Oliver Laxe’s “Sirât,” one of 22 feature films competing for the coveted Palme d’Or this year, marks an immediate canon into the world of road movies and techno-rave filmmaking.
The Spanish film opens on Luis (Sergi Lopez) and his son Estiban (Brúno Nuñez) in search of Luis’ missing daughter Mar, as they move through the grounds of a daytime rave smack-dead in the middle of the Moroccan desert. This scenery emphasizes the desolation and lack of spiritual fulfillment that ultimately composes the film’s emotional philosophy. The unfamiliar faces dancing emptily yet heartily to the intense vibrating pulses of bass speakers that surround the rave do not feel like a party, but like an existential last-ditch effort to share community.
The sound design sticks out as one of the most crucial elements contributing to the film’s haunted atmosphere. The shallow and seemingly infinite desert sounds provide a hollow ambience, allowing the desert to become its own character. Sound designer Laia Casanova is to thank for the undeniable moodiness and life that much of the film takes on — a feat that becomes particularly relevant in the film’s final act and unforgettable final rave sequence. Casanova’s work has personal importance to my watching experience given that I, an English speaker, saw the film in its original language of Spanish, with only French subtitles.
I do not believe that not understanding the entirety of the verbiage in the film (albeit, I was able to fumble my way through some of the Spanish spoken word) negatively impacted my viewing of the film. Certainly, this is not the way to experience the film, but the incredibly evocative performances from Lopez, Nuñez and the supporting cast, as well as Casanova’s previously mentioned sound design and an absolutely hypnotic score from the expert French composer Kangding Ray, combined to give me a clear understanding of the emotional arcs of each character and the narrative nuances at play from scene to scene. Of course, this would not be possible without Laxe’s succinct ability to bring his written vision to life in his directing, pulling the spiritual onus of the film together in a way that makes every viewer understand and empathize with the story.
Ray’s score is one of the most compelling and bombastic audible works out of the festival this year. Coinciding with Casanova, Ray’s work is responsible for a great amount of the emotional essence in the film, specifically the feelings of confusion and isolation. The film’s score is incredibly expressive, and is largely diegetic à la the rave elements within the film. The way the score interacts with the characters (or rather, the way the characters interact with the score) is responsible in large part for the expressionistic and avant-garde nuances to the characters emotional arcs.
Laxe dedicates a tremendous amount of his direction to developing the atmospheric elements of his film. In many ways, I believe that the narrative of the picture exists more to serve the environment that Laxe created, as opposed to the environment being built in service to the narrative.
Whilst the mystery of the missing daughter and the development of the companionship in the found-family ensemble of ravers is compelling, the film is ultimately an experiential work. I believe the film’s immediate legacy will be characterized by Laxe’s effort to create an ambient, moody escapade, and moreover I believe that “Sirât” is likely the most auric film of the year akin to the likes of “Lost Highway.”
The film was shot on Super 16mm film; an unusual stock even for filmmakers who usually work on analog. Although shooting films on film is making a large comeback — especially at Cannes following last year’s Palme d’Or winner “Anora,” which was shot on 35mm — Laxe’s decision to shoot on Super 16 contributes to the radical sense of tangibility throughout the movie, enveloping the audience into the physical environment the same way the soundscape enthralls us into the audible. Aside from how it affects the feel of the film, Laxe’s choice to shoot on analog speaks to an impressive efficiency of both time and budget, as the film was produced on an approximately $1.2 million budget, less than a sixth of the budget “Anora” had.
I suspect that “Sirât” will continue to have legs on the film festival circuit and throughout the awards season, likely garnering recognition in the score, sound and international picture categories at the next Academy Awards and neighboring awards shows. “Sirât” was my first exposure to Laxe’s work, but I have every confidence that he will remain on his successful trajectory and hopefully garner international recognition for his incredible strength in existentialist film.
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