Although he had already caught his attention at the Festival Circuit with his first two films, ‘All of you are captains’ (2010) and ‘Mimosas’ (2016), both premiered (and awarded) in Cannes, it was with ‘what burns’ (2019) when Oliver Laxe was revealed as a superlative filmmaker, capable of combining an unwavering author with the ability to connect with cinephile audiences more broad.
‘What burns’ was again awarded in Cannes (in the section a Celerin Regard, the second in importance), triumphed at the box office (more than 100,000 spectators only in Spain, a notable figure for a film of its characteristics) and competed in the Goya for the best film. It was during the promotion of these awards when he met Pedro Almodóvar, who was nominated (and would end up winning) with ‘pain and glory’ (2019).
Always attentive to the emergence of emerging filmmakers, since the beginning of Álex de la Iglesia (‘Mutant Action’) or Lucrecia Martel (‘The Holy Girl’), Almodóvar has not hesitated to produce the new Laxe movie. It has been the financial and promotional support it needed: Official section in Cannes, Jury and Sales Award around the world (it has acquired it for North America, the distributor of other hits of the festival such as ‘Anora’ or ‘Anatomy of a fall’).
And it is not surprising. ‘Sirat’ is undoubtedly one of the European films of the year. Laxe demonstrates again (it is enough to remember the impressive start of ‘what burns’) who is a gifted creator to build images of great aesthetic and poetic impact. His new film is full of sequences of an overwhelming audiovisual power, greatly hypnotic, sensual and willingness to transcende (it is not necessary to say that it is a film to see in the best movie theater that can be).
To this contributes the work of the award -winning director of photography Mauro Herce and, especially, the soundtrack of the French musician Kangding Ray, a fundamental element in the film. ‘SIRAT’ describes the Rave subculture with the intensity of a punkarra hugging a speaker in full Dionysian ecstasy: without masks, without filters, without judgments; As an escapist, community and therapeutic ritual, “as if the world was not going to end”, which Zahara sang in ‘Berlin U5’, whose spirit has more than one point of contact with which the entire film flies over.
But beyond the extraordinary sensory experience that its viewing involves, something common in Laxe’s cinema, what surprises the most of this film is its narrative dimension. ‘Sirat’ is essentially an adventure film: the physical and metaphysical epic of a group of travelers who are forced to take a dangerous detour to reach their destination. A twilight Western, Road Movie mystical and war suspense, with ‘Damn Cargo’ (‘Sorcerer’, 1977), by William Friedkin, as the main reference. Paraphrasing the meaning of the word “sirat”: an inner journey from hell – that can be opened in our lives when you least expect it – towards paradise, towards healing.
