Sirât: A Haunting Journey Through Chaos, Connection, and Utopia

Oliver Laxe’s Sirât: A Visionary Road Trip into Collapse, Connection, and Utopia

Every once in a while, a film shows up at Cannes that feels like it wasn’t just made for the festival but because of it. Sirât is one of those rare entries — a movie that defies genres, skips expectations, and delivers a deeply personal yet wildly universal cinematic experience. This is not your average indie flick or your run-of-the-mill art-house film. It’s something else entirely. Something that vibrates with tension, mystery, and a strange beauty.

⭐️ What makes Sirât stand out?

• It's visually stunning and philosophically deep

• Combines existential themes with modern genre elements

• Features non-actors in authentic roles, grounding the surreal story

• Blends blockbuster thrills with meditative realism

• It’s about family, survival, identity, and a collapsing world

Let’s dive into why Sirât isn’t just another Cannes entry — it’s a cinematic journey that sticks with you.

A Road Trip to the End of the World

Luis (played with grit and grace by Sergi López) isn’t your usual cinematic hero. He’s a grieving father, unsure of how to connect with his kids or the chaotic world they’re growing up in. His daughter Mar has disappeared — vanished into the Moroccan Sahara five months ago. No texts. No updates. Just gone.

What do you do when your child vanishes into a sea of illegal desert raves, far from the structured safety of Western civilization? You pack up your things, grab your young son Esteban (Brúno Nuñez), and go look for her. That’s what Luis does. No guarantee she’s alive. No clue what’s waiting for them out there. Just hope, pain, and desert wind.

A Mad Max Rave, but Make It Poetic

This film doesn’t waste time with conventional setups. Luis and Esteban land in a landscape of tatted-up ravers and throbbing 4/4 house beats. It’s weird. It’s gritty. It’s borderline dystopian. The parties are intense and lawless, but not necessarily threatening. That’s the first magic trick Laxe pulls off — making the bizarre feel familiar.

They meet Jade and Bigui — ravers who might know where Mar is. Together, they head deeper into the desert. And just like that, Sirât becomes something unexpected: a road movie through a crumbling world.

But don’t get too comfortable. Just when you think it’s a low-key rescue mission, Laxe drops a heavy twist.

🚨 Enter the Military, Exit Normalcy

A convoy of military vehicles appears out of nowhere. No bloodshed, no explosions — just an eerie, quiet escalation. A soldier singles out EU citizens for custody. The radio crackles with news: NATO messages, chaos at borders, mass migrations. Suddenly, this isn’t just a personal mission anymore — it’s a glimpse into a future unraveling at the seams.

Laxe doesn’t spoon-feed details. He lets you figure it out. The backdrop shifts into an alternate reality or a near-future collapse. You’re watching the world crumble, but through the lens of a very human story.

Morocco: The New Interzone

Filmed in the Moroccan Sahara — a region Laxe knows well — the film becomes a melting pot of cultures and ideologies. Islamic, Christian, New Age… you name it. This isn’t just geography; it’s symbolic. A true “interzone” as William S. Burroughs would call it.

Sirât — a reference to the bridge between hell and paradise in Islamic belief — isn't just a title. It's the thematic spine of the movie. Every character is walking that bridge: between grief and healing, chaos and clarity, civilization and wildness.

Simple Plot, Deep Dive

On the surface, the story is straightforward: find Mar. But the journey becomes a philosophical expedition, questioning what it means to be a parent, a survivor, a human in a world without rules.

Luis and Esteban eventually join up with another group: Stef, Josh, and Tonin (whose missing arm is never explained, just felt). The road gets rough — literally. Petrol is scarce, terrain is brutal, and every mile feels like another layer of civilization being stripped away.

It almost feels like an "adventure film for grownups", full of real problems and emotional stakes, not manufactured drama.

Then It All Shatters

Around the halfway mark, just as you start to settle into the rhythm of the road trip, something devastating happens. A tragedy hits. The kind that stops everything. No spoilers here — you’ll know it when it hits. The group is forced to pause, reflect, and confront their own mortality.

At this point, Sirât abandons any illusion of being a quest narrative. It becomes something richer — a meditation on grief, transformation, and survival.

Anti-Psychological But Fully Human

One of the most daring aspects of Sirât is its refusal to over-explain. Laxe, like other avant-garde filmmakers such as Albert Serra or Yuri Ancarani, embraces the "anti-psychological" approach. We don’t need flashbacks, dramatic breakdowns, or exposition. The film lets the bodies and landscapes do the talking.

Characters act, not explain. Their emotions are real, but never performative. The camera lingers on faces, hands, sand, wind — and it’s enough.

🎥 Cinematography That Transcends

Mauro Herce’s cinematography is more than beautiful — it’s spiritually immersive. There's no psychedelic CGI or overdone editing. Just light, shadow, and space. The Moroccan landscape becomes a character itself. Harsh but gorgeous. Timeless but decaying.

It’s the kind of visual storytelling that reminds you why cinema matters.

Raving Toward Utopia?

Yes, there are raves. Yes, there’s pounding electronic music. But here’s the twist — it’s not dystopia. It’s potential. These gatherings represent more than escape; they’re symbols of a new way to live. Community-driven, cooperative, unbound by old ideas like the nuclear family or capitalist labor systems.

Laxe isn’t naive — he knows how bleak the world looks right now. But Sirât imagines something else: a utopia born from collapse. A place where collectivity and care take precedence over greed and isolation.

🎬 Final Thoughts: Sirât Is a Revelation

Laxe’s first entry into the Cannes main competition doesn’t just deliver — it challenges, enchants, and unsettles in the best way possible. It's a film for people who crave meaning, who don’t mind sitting with discomfort, who believe that cinema can still surprise us.

So if you’re tired of predictable arcs, if you want to feel something raw and real, if you want to get lost in a movie that doesn't hand you answers — Sirât is waiting for you. And trust me, it’s worth the journey.

TL;DR
Sirât is a genre-defying odyssey through a collapsing world, offering stunning visuals, gut-punch moments, and a radical reimagining of community and survival. It’s not just a film. It’s a vision.