Oliver Laxe’s Sirat is a uniquely intense and nerve-wracking desert journey that blends existential horror with a surreal exploration of the human psyche. Set against the backdrop of a global apocalypse, the film traverses a psychological battleground as its characters move across the barren desert landscape, constantly challenged by an invisible force—likely the film’s own creator, Laxe, who exerts his will unpredictably on the audience.
At the heart of Sirat is Luis (Sergi López) and his son Esteban (Brúno Nuñez), two seemingly ordinary middle-class individuals thrust into an extraordinary and tragic situation. They journey across the desert in search of Luis’s missing daughter, Mar, whom they have not heard from in over five months. Their search takes them to a raving, nomadic subculture, where they distribute missing-person flyers, hoping for any lead. The scene is electric, charged with a surreal energy that blends the chaos of the Free Party movement with a growing sense of dread. The film quickly escalates into a high-stakes race against time as the two are told of an upcoming rave event deep within the desert, far from civilization—an event that may hold the key to finding Mar.
The first hour of the film immerses the audience in this desert rave culture, introducing a group of eclectic, often physically damaged individuals who have made the desert their home. These characters, including Steffi (Stefanian Gadda) and Josh (Joshua Liam Henderson), become an unexpected surrogate family for Luis and Esteban, offering moments of warmth amid the overwhelming strangeness of the situation. What begins as a search for a missing person soon morphs into a road movie, with the film maintaining a playful and lighthearted tone as Luis’s minivan struggles against the unforgiving desert terrain, and Esteban’s pet dog Pipa becomes ill after an encounter with LSD-laced excrement.
However, the movie takes a sharp turn after the halfway point, where an unexpected tragedy shakes the narrative to its core. From there, Sirat rapidly transforms into something far more unsettling and metaphorically rich. The loss of everything—material, emotional, and spiritual—leads to profound existential questions. The film evokes an apocalyptic sense of hopelessness, moving between the realms of survival and the loss of humanity, asking what happens when all is lost. As the journey delves deeper into its philosophical undercurrents, the once simple search for a missing girl becomes an intense meditation on human nature, the breakdown of societal norms, and the reconstitution of individual identity.
The desert in Sirat is both a literal and figurative space. Its vast emptiness becomes a battleground where the characters’ internal struggles manifest, and where they must confront their worst fears and deepest desires. Laxe’s cinematic techniques play on this tension, using the landscape’s harshness to mirror the fragility of the human mind. At times, the narrative feels like it’s completely unhinged, especially as the film ventures into symbolic territory, much like works by filmmakers such as Michelangelo Antonioni. This unconventional storytelling serves to heighten the sense of unpredictability, leaving audiences on the edge of their seats.
Sirat is often unsettling, but Laxe’s confident direction ensures that the film never loses its grip. The escalating tension reaches a fever pitch, culminating in an absurd, almost laughable climax that paradoxically becomes one of the most nerve-wracking moments in recent cinema. Despite the film’s abstract and elusive nature, it remains deeply impactful, with its haunting questions about the end of the world lingering long after the credits roll.
Overall, Sirat is a genre-defying, thought-provoking experience that challenges the conventions of both narrative structure and psychological filmmaking. It is a movie that grows darker, stranger, and more allegorical as it unfolds, offering an unsettling yet compelling view of a world on the brink of collapse. For those seeking something truly unique, Sirat provides a fresh perspective on the apocalyptic genre.
Sirat premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival in the competition section. The film’s runtime is 115 minutes and it was co-produced by A Filmes da Ermida, El Deseo, and Movistar+.
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