From Cannes Honors to Box Office Achievement
SIRĀT, directed by Oliver Laxe, made waves upon its 2025 release. It first turned heads at the Cannes Film Festival, earning the Jury Prize (tied with LES ÉCHOS DU PASSÉ), and then drew even more attention in theaters. Within a few weeks, the film sold more than 750,000 tickets—a remarkable feat for an auteur film without a celebrity-studded cast. Aside from Sergi López, well known in France, the rest of the cast are amateurs, bringing an unvarnished authenticity to the story.
A Quest Through Underground Parties and Mountain Crossings
In SIRĀT, Sergi López plays Luis, a father searching for his eldest daughter. Joined by his youngest son Esteban, he heads to an illegal party in southern Morocco, hoping to find her. There, he encounters five ravers. When the army suddenly breaks up the festivities, Luis decides to follow the group as they attempt to reach another rave in Mauritania, crossing harsh mountain landscapes in the process.
The film provoked discussion but was largely well received. Audiences were transported by Oliver Laxe’s immersive style, shifting between suffocating desert settings and hypnotic techno by Kangding Ray, which propels this mystical journey from beginning to end.
Production Trials and Audacious Choices
Though it has since been celebrated, Laxe struggled to secure financing. He said the project “wasn’t well understood at the writing stage,” and felt he was mistreated by the French funding system, telling Bande à part:
It's very common not to be chosen for funding. That happens to almost everyone. But given my trajectory—three films awarded at Cannes—you'd think they'd at least receive me and listen to me.
Thanks to support from Pedro Almodóvar and his brother Agustín, who produced SIRĀT via their company El Deseo, the film was made. The producers gave Laxe complete trust—even for the most challenging moments, such as the opening party scene where over 1,000 people showed up.
We organized a real party with rave collectives. We expected a few people, and then 1,000 arrived! We had to adapt, because once the music starts, they just keep dancing for three days…
Music is fundamental to SIRĀT. Laxe even played the music live on set during some scenes, despite the challenge of communicating with actors who could be several yards away. The post-production process was even more ambitious; simply adding the soundtrack would have made the results too polished. The team tried recording the music through studio speakers, but the sound was still too smooth. Since every speaker shown in the film was handmade with its own quirks, they found a similar system and recorded the music with microphones at different distances to capture the raw, physical force you’d feel at a real rave.
The Raw Desert Experience
Visually, SIRĀT used stunning natural locations in Spain and southern Morocco. The crew had to deal with unpredictable weather, including an actual sandstorm during filming.
You can see Sergi López on screen bracing against sand and turning away, and when his character is walking alone before collapsing, the rising wind is genuine. The physical outpouring of the characters was matched by the actors’ own exhaustion.
The shoot was tough, but we’re not complaining—we’re making a movie, we’re the lucky ones. That hardship, the heat, the crew’s exhaustion, dry mouths, thirst—it all lives in the film and helped us build the story and our characters.
In a later interview, López spoke of the immense enjoyment he took from the experience. His inhabited performance as a father growing increasingly broken and withdrawn is one of the film’s standouts.
