FF '25: Sirāt
Sirāt is the latest film from French director Oliver Laxe and takes place over the course of a few days as a father and his son try to find their daughter and sister, Mar, somewhere in the southern desert of Morocco. What unfolds is a non-conventional road trip movie through the valleys of Hell in order to find “something.” The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year to major acclaim, and it’s easy to see why. The film front-loads you with bass and electric dance music in a hypnotic way that overloads your senses and never lets go.
Luis (Sergi Lopez) and his son Esteban (Bruno Nunez Arjona) are on a hunt for their daughter and sister, Mar, who has been missing for an unspecified amount of time, and the last known location is traversing the desert side rave scene of the Moroccan valley. Their search keeps coming up with nothing until they meet a band of roadies and rave-goers who claim to have seen her in the past. Reluctantly, they agree to help the two find their daughter or at least to take them to the next rave in hopes of finding her there, and that's where the odyssey begins. Across their journey, they traverse some of the roughest terrain in their tiny minivan and are constantly challenged by a new obstacle. The bass-boosted sounds of the rave are suffocating and loud, and are sure to give any theater’s sound system a full workout, the likes of which they haven’t seen since Civil War. The film sound in this movie is so good that even when the movie slows down for a quiet moment about halfway through to drop the title card, it still doesn't release you from its grip and just builds and builds upon an already tense situation. It serves as a Trojan horse of sorts, giving you just enough to wonder if you were just duped into watching an extended music video until the movie reveals its true intentions: being a movie about lost souls and found family.
The cast here seems like they just plucked people from the rave scene and put a camera in their face and told them to act natural, and it just so happened to work out. Everyone gives these almost silent performances as they let the score do the talking for them, but it works out in such a way that you never really question it. Stef (Stefania Gadda), Bigui (Richard Bellamy), and Jade (Jade Oukid) stand out. They are the film’s emotional core. As Luis and Esteban continue to roll with them, they break down the walls of the film's tension and allow it to breathe a bit before coming to a conclusion that left me needing a shower and a drink.
As you delve deeper and deeper into this Hellscape and get to know the characters, the film slowly becomes more and more cruel. It’s an impressive move that it pulls off, lulling you into a sense that the movie might not be more than an audibly and visually impressive road trip adventure. No spoilers, but one turning point in the film left everyone near me feeling sick and wondering what was next for the movie to present. Well, what remains was something challenging to watch because of how it takes everything presented to you prior and pulls the rug out from underneath you. It’s ironic that they travel across the desert looking for Mar (ocean in Spanish). They’re searching for some sort of relief, some sort of catharsis, and the audience joins them in looking for that same release. The film has no qualms about never giving you what you’re looking for.
During the pre-recorded introduction at this year’s Fantastic Fest, the director mentioned that this film was Spain’s selection for the 2026 Academy Awards, and it’s easy to see why. It’s an unconventional pick that fires on all its cylinders from the beginning, and just when you think you have it figured out, it throws a curveball your way and forces you to keep watching. Hot, sweaty, and filled with dread, Sirāt goes there and takes you alongside it whether you wanted that or not. Initially, the trailers made it seem like this was going to be a moody, dramatic film with similarities to Mad Max: Fury Road, but in actuality, it couldn’t be further from Fury Road apart from its setting; Sirāt is a beast of its own.
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Blake Williams has a B.A. in Film and Television Production from Ball State University. He aspires to one day be a director, but until that day comes you can find him at a showing of whatever's playing that day or at home alphabetizing a shelf of movies and games and muttering about how he should "slow down on spending."