Sirât

Directed by Oliver Laxe, Sirât follows a father (Sergi López’s Luis) and his young son (Bruno Núñez Arjona’s Esteban) as they hook up with a group of travelling ravers in an attempt to find a family member. Filmmaker Laxe, armed with his and Santiago Fillol’s screenplay, delivers a progressively engrossing endeavor that kicks off with a memorable, striking opening stretch, and there’s little doubt, certainly, that Sirât benefits substantially from Laxe’s perpetually stylish approach to a a sporadically spare narrative – with the engaging atmosphere heightened by López’s predictably solid turn as the grimly determined Luis. (It’s worth noting, too, that Laxe elicits impressively accomplished work from a mostly amateur cast.) And while the somewhat episodic midsection admittedly does boast a hit-and-miss feel, Sirât, once it passes a very specific (and shocking) point, transforms into a palpably harrowing thriller that builds towards a satisfying final stretch – with the final result a first-class (and thoroughly audacious) effort from a seriously promising filmmaker.

***1/2 out of ****