Sirāt: Óliver Laxe’s film follows a father, along with his son, who are in North Africa looking for his daughter, who has been missing for months while attending rave parties in the area. The world at large has circumstances that are crucial to the story, but the characters don’t have any understanding of them. The story is barely there, and the few characters the film follows are not all that developed either; they have their goals, and they are propelled forward, and that’s it. Ultimately, the film is just like a long trek through the desert: it can be tense (and the film is, truth be told, quite good at building tension), even brutal at times, but it’s not all that interesting.

Father and son are played, respectively, by Sergi López and Bruno Núñez Arjona, both of whom are fine. The other major characters are played by non-professional performers, all from the rave scene; they all have great faces and physicality, and are effective in playing a version of themselves. The mostly techno musical score, by Kangding Ray, is propulsive. Editor Cristóbal Fernández builds tension and keeps it high quite effectively. Cinematographer Mauro Herce captures the faces and the desert beautifully.