SIRAT
(director/writer: Oliver Laxe; screenwriter: Santiago Fillol; cinematographer: Mauro Herce; editor: Cristobal Fernandez; music: Kangding Ray; cast: Stefania Gadda (Stef), Joshua Liam Henderson (Josh), Tonin Janvier (Tonin), Jade Oukid (Jade), Richard Bellamy (Biqui), Sergi Lopez (Luis), Bruno Nunez (Esteban); Runtime: 114; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Agustin Almodovar, Pedro Almodovar, Domingo Corral, Xavi Font, Oliver Laxe, Oriol Maymo, Mani Mortazavi, Cesar Pardinas, Andrea Queralt; Neon; 2025-Spain/France-in Spanish, French with English subtitles)
“A meditation on human existence that rocks.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
“Sirāt” means “path” in Arabic. The title is taken from the mythic Islamic bridge between paradise and hell that’s “narrower than a strand of hair and sharper than a sword.” The French born filmmaker of Spanish heritage Oliver Laxe (“Mimosas”/”Fire Will Come”) directs this bleak, weird, and spiritual Moroccan desert drama on nature and survival he co-writes with his usual collaborator Santiago Fillol. The cast is a mix of professional and amateur actors recruited from a rave. The far-out cult film is not for those unwilling to take a walk on the wild side in the desert.
The middle-aged, middle-class, single parent, Luis (Sergi López, Spanish actor), and his adolescent son Esteban (Bruno Núñez Arjona) with their dog Pipa are searching in their minivan for Luis’ teen daughter, Mar, by handing out photos of her to those attending a rave in the desert who might recognize her. She mysteriously vanished 5 months before in this same Moroccan desert while attending a similar type of rave.
Only a group of misfits, attending an upcoming rave, offer to help them find the missing girl at the new rave site: Bigui (Richard “Bigui” Bellamy, who has facial tattoos, Jade (Jade Oukid), Steff (Stefania Gadda) and, a street-performer who has one leg, Tonin (Tonin Janvier).
The army forces them to go on a narrow mountain road whose terrain is rough and hard to travel in. They manage to get through a sandstorm and some bad moments for the dog after they drop acid. Their search at the rave for the girl, for truth or for themselves leads nowhere, as we learn it’s possible the missing girl was abducted and will never be found or has just been on a continuous rave and doesn’t want to come home.
On the radio we hear the disturbing news that WWIII has begun and things in the country have become chaotic. Meanwhile the thumping electronic dancing music from Kangding Ray makes it seem we’re in an alien world and are trapped in an ongoing rave, which leads the group of outsiders to a heart-breaking climax.
It’s a well-crafted, visually rich and unusually plotted film–a meditation on human existence that rocks and leaves us feeling as bewildered as if we were continuously tripping.
It played at the Cannes Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 12/24/2025 GRADE: A-
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