French Galician director Oliver Laxe works in Morocco as he did in Mimosas, a film I didn’t like back then. A decade later, he’s doing a festival run with Sirat, taking place in the same desert where characters wander. The roads of the Sahara have new travelers, one of them a father, Luis (Sergi Lopez). Luis is searching for his daughter, missing for months after attending one of a few raves. With the Spanish man is his young son Esteban (Bruno Núñez) and a handful of ravers (including Stefania Gadda and Richard Bellamy).
Morocco, in this film, also joined a side in a third world war, forcing the evacuation of all European Union citizens. The family and the ravers, though, decide not to be part of the evacuation and drive to the mountains. The desert, in Sirat‘s eyes, becomes both the safest place on earth but also the most dangerous for several reasons. And despite this new film’s similarities with Mimosas, its contradictions make me buy what it’s selling to me.
There are at least a few ways to interpret Sirat‘s message to its viewers, either interpretation being sublime. Either that the world is both a kind and a cruel place, or that human kindness to each other can only do so much. And that’s because the world is an inherently cruel place, remembering its many scars, whether human or artificial. However one interprets this film, it’s also unflinching with the right amount of memorable gallows humour.
- Rated: Unrated
- Genre: Drama, musical
- Release Date: 9/5/2025
- Directed by: Oliver Laxe
- Starring: Bruno Núñez, Richard Bellamy, Sergi López, Stefania Gadda
- Produced by: Andrea Queralt, Mani Mortazavi, Oliver Laxe, Oriol Maymó
- Written by: Oliver Laxe, Santiago Fillol
- Studio: 4 A 4 Productions, El Deseo, Filmes da Ermida, Uri Films
