SIRAT – Review by Yael Friedman (Guest Post)
Early on in Sirat, the stunning and devastating film by Oliver Laxe, one character asks another, “Is this what the end of the world feels like?” The other answers, “It’s been the end of the world for a long time.” They’re only partially serious, observing society at a kind of remove, only tourists at the end of the world, as many of us think we are.
The film quickly dispenses with this remove, and it does so without any warning – literal and metaphorical guardrails suddenly evaporating. We are plunged into the reality that the end of the world is not waiting to announce itself. Sirat follows a charming motley crew of nomadic Europeans ravers, somewhere in southern Morocco. A party in a desert fills up the screen with this moonscape beset by electronic beats, basslines, dancing bodies in various states of rejection of polite society. We are totally immersed, easily led into this pilgrimage, ready to hand ourselves over to this camaraderie, to feeling fully embodied in dance and drugs, the rest of the world melting away. The beautiful and unrelenting score, by Kanding Ray, never lets you unhook. Contnue readng on THE FEMALE GAZE
ABOUT YAEL FRIEDMAN
Yael Friedman is a journalist based in New York. She covers art and culture and their intersection with economics, politics, and history. She has written extensively about urban history and urban planning, particularly New York’s, analyzing its past and assessing its present and future. Her articles have appeared in Bloomberg CityLab, 1843, The Conversationalist, The Economist, The Daily Beast, Haaretz, Forward, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Urban Omnibus.
