San Francisco Frontiers - Ravers revel in Cannes spotlight with thumping 'Sirat'

Set in Morocco and containing echoes of cult road movie "Mad Max", genre-twisting "Sirat" wowed many critics when it premiered on Thursday evening in the main competition.

Franco-Spanish director Oliver Laxe, a fan of illegal raves himself, cast real people from the scene in leading roles alongside veteran Spanish actor Sergi Lopez, who is the lead.

"It was just incredible to be able to show who we are -- because this is the world we live in -- and to be able to express ourselves and show people that anything is possible," Richard Bellamy told a press conference Friday.

"Listening to music, that's what makes us feel alive," added the heavily tattooed Frenchman.

"It was an intense experience to be both a protagonist and completely lost in the world of cinema," added co-star Jade Oukid, who plays herself.

Featuring a soundtrack of hard trance and rumbling electronic music, film bible Variety said Sirat "pummels us emotionally and psychologically in ways we can't predict".

The film starts with a vivid portrayal of a sweaty and sun-backed free-party in the Moroccan desert where Lopez's character Luis is searching desperately for his lost daughter.

Laxe, who co-wrote the screenplay, said he had always liked the rave scene because of its tolerance and lack of pretension.

"I think that all human beings are a bit broken, we all have a fracture, an injury, but many of us create mechanisms to project an idealised image of ourselves," he told reporters Friday.

"What I like about the travelling rave scene is the celebration of our injuries, of showing them," he added.

Two of his lead amateur actors, Bellamy and fellow Frenchman Tonin Janvier, both have physical disabilities.

The title "Sirat" means a hair-thin bridge that purportedly connects heaven and hell, the meaning of which becomes obvious at the film's dramatic climax.

- Grizzled -

Paris-born Laxe, who lived in Morocco for a decade, said he had purposefully mixed genres and broken some of the rules of cinema story-telling.

"Some people will be amazed, thrilled by the freedom with which we made it. And others won't get it."

Film magazine Screen was not entirely convinced, saying Laxe had maintained tension throughout "although to frustratingly inconclusive effect and somewhat at the cost of conventional dramatic satisfaction".

It paid tribute to the cast, however, which projected "a genuine sun-baked, grizzled sense of having knocked around".

German-language film "The Sound of Falling" by Mascha Schilinski, a multi-generational drama set on a farm in northeast Germany, has emerged as an early critics' favourite in Cannes.

The Palme d'Or award for best film, given to Oscar-winner "Anora" by Sean Baker last year, will be handed out in a ceremony on Saturday May 24.

K.Gray--SFF