Oliver Laxe’s Cannes Jury Prize-winning film Sirat is unlike anything you’ve seen before. The brief plotline is deceptive, because the film is so much more than a father’s search for his daughter. There is a certain meditative quality, and the long rave scene at the very beginning of Sirat allows the audience to get into the groove. At an illegal rave party in the middle of the Moroccan desert, a father, Luis, is seen searching for his daughter, Mar, with his son, Esteban. According to Esteban, his sister didn’t run away; she was a grown-up who left one day, and he believed that she would be pleasantly surprised if they found her. Luis and Esteban develop an unexpected bond with a group of ravers. They were Spanish-speaking, and Luis figured that they could help him find the other desert rave party. The group of friends as well as the father-son duo took off after the military showed up at the party. Foreigners were asked to evacuate since a state of emergency had been declared. But friends Steff, Jade, Tonin, Bigui, and Josh were ready to risk it all for one last rave.
Spoiler Alert
What does Luis’ friendship with the ravers signify?
Among various other things, Sirat is about Luis’ friendship with Steff, Jade, Tonin, Bigui, and Josh. As a father of a raver who didn’t quite grasp the culture and thought the music was just too loud, he developed a camaraderie with these young souls searching for peace and a meaning to existence. The ravers too appreciated Luis’ earnest desire to reunite with his daughter and fell in love with Esteban’s innocence. Although they were quite unlike each other, Luis started to see more to the ravers than their lifestyle.
After crossing a river when the ravers took off in their vans, Luis assumed they’d abandoned him, and he wondered why he trusted them in the first place. But his doubt soon proved to be rooted in his preconceived notion of ravers being untrustworthy when Steff, Jade, Tonin, Bigui, and Josh returned to the spot and helped him cross the river. While Luis was apprehensive about sharing their food, Esteban was adamant about offering what little they had and reminded his father it was just to be kind to those who’d been selflessly helping them. While Luis, Esteban, and the ravers were trying to find the next rave spot in the desert, we learn that World War III had broken out, parts of Morocco were under attack, civilians were desperately trying to make it to the border, and there was chaos all around. Steff came across a shack with a television broadcasting footage from Mecca; the soulful chants juxtaposed by the endless road hinted at the idea that while their journeys (the worshipers and the ravers) might be starkly different, their goal was the same: finding peace and surrendering themselves to the divine completely.
Did Esteban and Pippa die?
Luis wasn’t sure if he would find his daughter at the next rave, but regardless, the journey had been surprising and fulfilling. Perhaps he figured that even if he failed to find his daughter, at least he would remember the ravers who firmly stood by him and the friendship that they developed over time. The journey had already proved to be challenging as a result of their limited resources and the unpredictable terrain. Luis and Esteban felt helpless when their pet dog Pippa fell sick, but the ravers nursed her back to health. Luis figured that as long as they were together, they could triumph over impossible challenges, so when one of the vans got stuck in a mountain pass, he helped his newfound friends free the vehicle. They celebrated when the van took off, but the celebration was immediately met with a tragedy. Luis’ car started to roll backwards, and quite shockingly, the car fell off the cliff. Esteban and Pippa were inside the car, and his son’s terrifying screams begging him to do something would haunt him forever. This was the moment when things started to go wrong.
Luis had traveled to Morocco to find his daughter; he met a few ravers and thought he could make it to the next rave party and reunite with Mar. Losing Esteban wasn’t something that he had perhaps ever considered would happen. The audience too is caught off-guard, considering this wasn’t really something that you would expect from what appears to be a drama. But then again, isn’t that just how death often is—unpredictable? Luis blamed himself for Esteban’s demise; he was the one who’d asked his son to wait inside the car while he tried to help the others with the van. If only he hadn’t asked Esteban to do so, maybe his son would’ve been alive. Who would have thought that something that he said out of safety concern would end up being the reason behind his son’s death?
Luis struggled to cope with the situation he found himself in. His search for his daughter, in a way, led to the death of his son, and he no longer knew what he was supposed to do with his life anymore. He figured that all he could do was make it to the crash site. Deep down he knew there was no hope; his son couldn’t have survived the fall, but then again, the slim possibility of a miracle is often the only respite. The ravers tried to find help, but radio communication was almost nonexistent, and the nomadic herder they ran into wasn’t keen on helping them. He was possibly afraid of facing harsh consequences for getting involved with a group of outsiders. Luis wanted to dissolve into the desert, turn into a speck of dust, and drift to where his son was; he perhaps secretly hoped that he would succumb to thirst, hunger, and fatigue, but that wasn’t his destiny.
What resulted in the tragic twist to the tale?
The ravers figured they needed to do something to help Luis. Their resources were drying up with every passing day, and they barely had any control over the future. So, they decided to take a break from their journey. Jade suggested they turn to psychedelic drugs and music to cope with the loss. As soon as the drug kicked in, the ravers as well as Luis started to move to the beat. Their agony and their frustration finally found an expression. Jade gradually got into the rave spirit, and as soon as she said, ‘Make everything blow up,’ there was an explosion. It was a morbid coincidence; Jade stepped on a landmine when she made the statement. She died immediately; Tonin couldn’t believe what just happened, and he instinctively walked towards her body, and he too ended up stepping on a mine and died instantly. What was supposed to be a grieving ritual, to let all the pain and suffering out of their system, took a traumatic turn. They figured that the entire stretch of land was filled with mines, and they would only survive if they made it to the mountains.
As they mourned the unforeseen deaths of Esteban, Jade, and Tonin, they also had to find a way to survive. They were in a precarious position; one wrong step and they too would end up dead. The next morning, Josh woke up to find Luis had buried the remains of Jade and Tonin. He wasn’t afraid of dying anymore, and while he couldn’t bury his son, he wanted to pay Jade and Tonin his last respects. Luis suggested they use their vans to figure out which path they could choose to make it to the mountains. Both the vans burned in front of their eyes, leaving them without a proper safe path. It was almost as if they had no choice but to accept death; if they stayed where they were, they would eventually die of hunger and thirst; if they moved, they risked blowing up. Either way, death was knocking at their doorstep. Luis believed he had nothing left to lose, so without giving it any thought, he walked towards the mountain.
What does the final scene suggest?
Luis surprisingly made it to the other side. He didn’t have a strategy, and most importantly, any fear in his heart. He’d accepted his destiny, even if it meant dying that very moment. At the very beginning of the film we are told that ‘Sirat’ is the name of the bridge that links hell and paradise; the ones who cross it are warned that its passage ‘is narrower than a strand of hair, sharper than a sword.’ The ending of the film emphasizes the meaning of the word all over again; the passage between life and death was ‘narrower than a strand of hair,’ and one could only cross it if they overcame their fears, expectations, and inhibitions. Bigui was inspired by Luis, and he attempted to cross the passage, but he ended up stepping on a mine, and he died in the blast. Josh and Steff were the only ones left; their hearts ached for Bigui, but they were also running out of time and options. They asked Luis how he managed to make it to the other side, especially after witnessing Bigui die even after he followed Luis’ footsteps. Luis plainly stated that he crossed ‘without thinking.’
In Sirat’s ending, Josh and Steff decided to cross the passage with their eyes closed. They realized that there wasn’t any formula or technique that could guarantee their safe passing, so all they could do was surrender themselves completely. To their surprise, they successfully made it to the other side. They were granted another day to live and experience the world. During the final scene, we witness Luis, Josh, and Steff traveling on a train that passed through the desert, suggesting that they would eventually manage to make it out of the Moroccan desert. They had to leave behind their loved ones and possessions that they once thought they couldn’t pass a day in their lives without; all that they had was this bittersweet feeling. Surviving meant carrying the agony of loss, but at the same time, after everything they’d witnessed, they had a lot to be thankful for.
In a way, one can also come to the conclusion that these ‘outsiders’ got a taste of the regular life of the Moroccan natives. While they at least had a way out, the natives didn’t. The film also underlines the uncertainty of life, especially with the announcement of World War III. Surviving a couple of traumatizing days in the desert didn’t guarantee a ‘better life.’ The world was falling apart, people were being killed, humanity had once again lost the plot, and to think about it, there wasn’t really any escape from the hell that the world had turned into.
