Parents' Guide to Sirāt

This tragic, strange, beautifully filmed, hypnotic movie is both hard to watch and tough to take your eyes off of. Sirāt was a finalist for Best International Film and Best Sound Design Oscars. That latter nomination recognizes the sensory experience of the film, which sets striking frames of the desert to the pulsating techno beats and haunting strains of rave music. The technical work on display from the sound team, cinematographer Mauro Herce, director Laxe, who co-wrote the script with regular collaborator Santiago Fillol, and the rest of the film's creatives evokes a story that's limited in scope but meticulously developed. When tragedy strikes, you're both unprepared and yet not totally surprised. Laxe has called it a spiritual film, a rite of passage, and a ceremony of death. It's also an exercise in realism, with many nonprofessional actors and actual raves.

The characters encounter military troops declaring a state of emergency and evacuating citizens, while radio reports refer to a war that will change the world. Do you notice World War III when you're at the end of the world, a character asks? "We've been at the end of the world a long time," another replies. Such cryptic messages and moments of intended metaphor or deeper symbolism feel rife in this film. The title signifies a path between hell and paradise, and here humans face existential crises in the vast desert, the alternative communal lifestyle is at odds with the individual drug trip, and a televised scene of a spiritual hajj pilgrimage is reminiscent of the ravers in communal trance (in fact, melodic prayers fade into rave music). A hallucination or an awakening, what it all means might be up to each viewer's interpretation and experience.