Oliver Laxe

Laxe was born in 1982 in Paris to Galician parents. They met at Bataclan at a dance party for emigrants^[3] and worked as concierges in the 16th arrondissement.^[4][5] He grew up in the city in a room shared with his parents^[6] and attended the Spanish government-operated school Federico García Lorca until the age of six.^[7] Laxe's grandparents were peasants^[8] from Lugo, his mother is from Vilela, Navia de Suarna,^[3] while his father is from A Ponte de Outeiro, Castro de Rei.^[9] He has a brother, Felipe, who works as a film producer and often collaborates on his films.^[10][11] In 1988, after a picture taken by his father Jacinto, won a prize at the Paris Photography Salon, Laxe's father was hired to work selling photography materials in Manlleu, Catalonia. As the job was not what he expected, the family moved back to Galicia and settled in A Coruña.^[12][4] He attended the IES Monelos [gl] and in his teens played for Básquet Coruña's youth team.^[13][1]

After completing his secondary education, he moved to Pontevedra and studied for two years Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Vigo's Faculty of Communication,^[14][15] during which time he lived in the Plaza de la Verdura and discovered arthouse cinema at the Pontevedra Film Club.^{[16][17][15][18]} He would often hang out with the Fine Art students and stage art installations.^[19][18] Disillusioned with his major, he moved to Barcelona where he finally studied filmmaking at the Pompeu Fabra University and did his Erasmus in London where he filmed his first short and final degree project Y las chimeneas decidieron escapar.^[14][20][19] After graduating in 2006, he moved to Morocco.^[20][21]

His debut feature film, You All Are Captains, premiered in the Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine des réalisateurs) section at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize.^[22]

His second feature, Mimosas, was filmed in the Atlas Mountains and screened in the Critics' Week section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Nespresso Grand Prize.^[23][24] The project was developed through the TorinoFilmLab Interchange programme in 2011.^[25]

Returning to his native Galicia, he directed Fire Will Come, which premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize.^[26]

His fourth feature, Sirāt,^[22] premiered in Competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and won the Jury Prize.^[27]

Aside from his native Galician and Spanish, Laxe is fluent in French.^[13][28] He can also speak Catalan^[12][29] and English.^[30] He changed his surname from the castilianized version Lage.^[1]

Laxe has been living in Navia de Suarna, Lugo since 2020.^[3][31] The family house, named Casa Quindós after his maternal grandmother, also functions as the headquarters of the Ser Association, which promotes cultural and environmentalist activities in rural Galicia.^[3][32] He divorced from his spouse in 2024, shortly before filming for Sirāt began.^[33][34]

Laxe is a practicing Muslim,^[35][36] and his movie Sirat is named after the Islamic concept of As-Sirāt, the bridge over which every person must pass on in order to enter Paradise.^[37]