“Is this what the end of the world feels like?”
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It’s become something of a cliché to recommend a film by saying, “You’ve got to see this one on the big screen.” Well, maybe not a cliché, but a phrase so common that after you’ve seen SIRĀT and subsequently recommend it—and you’ll want to do both—you’ll probably wish that you could take back a few instances: “No, this time I really mean it. SIRĀT is what cinemas are made for...”
And the funny thing is, in this case the recommendation is not for the sake of visuals, which are consistently stunning, but for the sound. In fact, at the risk of being cutesy, I’d like to offer that SIRĀT is the most soul-stirring, transporting “musical” I’ve seen in quite long time. Of course, what writer-director Oliver Laxe has created is not a musical, and it’s not a horror movie either—although there are scenes of horror that I guarantee you will never forget. One could term SIRĀT a thriller without too much objection, but more accurately it’s a member of a genre we don’t hear much from—it’s an adventure movie. Once upon a time that meant John Huston-like sagas, but nowadays I’m straining to recall more than a handful of accomplished recent releases whose narratives aren’t significantly encroached upon by other genres (e.g., action, romcom, fantasy & sci-fi). Perhaps Laxe is reinvigorating, if not redeeming, a genre that seems to have been domesticated and rarely offers the truly unpredictable or tragic.
This is not to say that SIRĀT is wholly original—arguably most great works of popular cinema aren’t. In fact, you’ll see shades of many other filmmakers here, from John Ford to George Miller and Henri-Georges Clouzot. However, this does not detract one ounce from the freshness and grim vitality on display; it just shows that Laxe has good taste.
The only letdown occurs, unfortunately, right around the dramatic climax. The script, which has been careful to keep its allegorical messaging in the background—present for those who care to notice but not directly taking the spotlight from the characters and the immediacy of their situation—removes the matter of survival from of our own dirty human hands and places it in something like fate, or faith. In these moments, SIRĀT ceases to be a harrowing experiential dream from which we can’t escape and instead becomes what’s clearly a mere text, an arena for the play of themes; that is, we’re now watching the screenwriter’s “ideas” come alive rather than an organic and fluid unfolding of action... which has been a key strength of this remarkable film all along.
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