Sirât

[SocksAndTheCity]

I saw this last night without knowing much about it bar the basic premise, and having seen the trailer a couple of times.

It's been raved about in various reviews but I found it uninvolving and flat, and whilst it's beautifully made and well acted I just couldn't bring myself to care much what happened to anybody by the third act. I did like the score 😀

Has anybody else seen it and did I miss something hugely profound and blindingly obvious? I didn't hate it, but I wouldn't rush to watch it again.

Going to see it this afternoon and just came across your thoughts. If I have anything interesting to say after I'll come back! I also saw the rave reviews which encouraged me to go and see it. But Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian only gave it 2 stars. I didn't actually read his review, I almost never do because he has a tendency to give spoilers IMHO. But I do notice his star ratings even if I choose to ignore them. He is not the film oracle by a long stretch! 😂
Sorry you didn't really enjoy it. I'm intrigued now!

Well usually an unenthusiastic review from a pretentious bellend like Peter Bradshaw is a guarantee that I'll like whatever it is, although I don't read them as a general rule (and watching his YouTube videos is like having your brain rolled in broken glass) but it seems we might actually agree on this one.

I think I just had high hopes for Sirât in the same way as I did for Secret Agent which I saw last week - that one lived up to them and this one didn't. There is some very fine techno in there though ☺️

Haven't seen Secret Agent so can't comment. Here's PB's review, which I think I more-or-less agree with. I definitely enjoyed the first half of the film but as it got bleaker it also seemed to lose its way. Which is a bit weird really because it's obviously a film about losing your way, so arguably it should feel like that.
I did care about the characters though. Especially gutted at loss of - spoiler alert to anyone reading - child and dog. After that it just seemed to keep on ratcheting up the trauma for the sake of it and I stopped being able to connect.
Not quite the film it could have been. I'll say this though, the five non-actors in main parts were phenomenal and I find myself wondering if this will change their lives at all or whether they'll go back to living like they have. The better story might be in there somewhere!
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/nov/26/sirat-review-desert-morocco-oliver-laxe-cannes-prize-winner

A documentary with the non actors and the desert raves I would definitely watch 😀👍

I've just read a rave review of this (not Bradshaw), although it does say,

'But be warned: it takes you to places you don't want to go'

Seeing it stars the wonderful Sergi López (if you haven't seen the brilliant Harry, he's here To Help, you should) encouraged me a lot.

Ooh, I love Harry, He's Here To Help!

It's great, isn't it? One of my faves.

Sergi Lopez was one of the reasons I went to see it, and everybody in the film (actors and non actors) was great.

It was shot in Morocco which is indeed somewhere I don't want to go, so there's that. Although if the reviewer was inferring that if somebody didn't rate it then it must be because they're too thick to have understood it properly, then they maybe ought to lay off the reviewing for now and concentrate on sixth form.

Yeah any flaws in this film were definitely not in the acting. The actors were excellent and my memories of the acting and the characters is good, it's the story that lost its way.
Incidentally Mark Kermode has a review of it on his YouTube channel and he agrees that the film lost it, and he puts it very well.

I like the way it was made. I liked the way they used real ravers too. I know nothing about it before I saw it. It was quite the shock
it captured something about rave culture.