Review - Sirat
Directed by: Oliver Laxe
Written by: Santiago Fillol, Oliver Laxe
Starring: Sergi Lopez, Bruno Nuñez Arjona, Richard Bellamy, Stefania Gadda, Joshua Liam Henderson, Tonin Janvier, Jade Oukid
Running Time: 114 Minutes
Rating: 3.5/5
Sirāt is sonically overwhelming and visually hypnotic, the kind of film that floods the senses even when its story feels fragmented. Óliver Laxe creates a world where music has both a metaphysical presence and a physical weight, almost as if it is rising from the earth itself. The result is anxiety-inducing in all the right ways, a film that vibrates with an energy you feel more in your body than in your mind.
Sergi López plays a father searching for his missing daughter, Marina, who vanished into the rave subculture scattered across the Moroccan deserts. He teams up with a drifting constellation of young ravers who begin to sketch out an image of who Marina was and who she might have been surrounded by. These encounters become the emotional backbone of the film. Each story is a shard, illuminating different angles of a girl who is always just out of reach.
The problem, if it can be called that, is how the film holds all its strongest pieces. At times Sirāt feels like three different movies running parallel to each other. A spiritual quest film. A father-child drama. A portrait of rave culture as both refuge and void. Each strand is compelling, but they do not always fully congeal into a single cohesive narrative. The transitions are dreamy, but occasionally disorienting.
Still, when the film hits, it hits hard. Laxe has an instinct for tone and atmosphere that borders on hypnotic. The sound design is astonishing, dense with bass, breath, and the echo of bodies moving through wide, empty spaces. The visuals are equally powerful. Desert nights lit by strobing neon. Faces painted in dust and sweat. Music that seems to stretch time.
There is a tension running through the entire film, a state of unease that mirrors the father’s panic and the volatile nature of rave culture itself. It keeps the movie pulsing even when the narrative drifts.
Sirāt may not completely unify its ambitions, but it is unforgettable in its sensory force. A fractured, immersive journey into grief, memory, and the strange places where music becomes something more than sound. A film that may leave you unsure of its shape, but absolutely certain of its impact.
