Luis (Sergi López), along with his son Esteban (Bruno Núñez Arjona), travels to a rave held in the deserts of southern Morocco in search of his missing daughter, Mar. Despite the warnings of grave international crisis on the radio, the pair team with up with a ragtag group of rave veterans to go deeper and deeper into the desert in their quest to find Mar at a rumoured second event.
In the end, I found Óliver Laxe’s Oscar nominated drama to be perplexing. The first two thirds had me hooked. The trance style music from Kangding Ray, stunning cinematography by Mauro Herce and the convincing performances from a supporting cast of non-actors all work. It reminded me of The Wages of Fear as the group travail perilous conditions in their trucks.
But then an extremely tragic event occurs that seemed to knock the slim narrative off course. From then on it falls apart into a mess of drug taking and ridiculous decision making. The final 15 minutes or so are, I assume, meant to be moving but they felt farcical to me. The non-professional actors, who had been so good up to then, struggle with the emoting that is required.
Rating: 6 out of 10