Sirāt

Development

Laxe had considered making a film based on the simple concept of "trucks crossing the desert". In 2011, he wrote a treatment about a truck race, which he likened to the TV series Wacky Races, but the project ultimately went unmade. While making his second feature film Mimosas, Laxe reconnected with rave culture, and decided to retool the concept for a new script about dancing.^[2]

In November 2023, the film, which was still in development, received a production grant of €1.2 million from Spain's Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts.^[3] In January 2024, Movistar Plus+ revealed the film as part of a five-project slate to be produced by the platform, with traditional theatrical windows but whose end purpose would be airing on the Spanish streamer.^[4] Laxe described his then-untitled film as a story about "some rave attendees in Morocco among whom a father and son are searching for their missing daughter and sister", imagining it to be "very hypnotic, and very sensorial".^[4][5] He also referred to the film as his "most political" and "most radical".^[6] The film had a reported budget of €6.5 million.^[7]

Besides Sergi López and Bruno Núñez, none of the main cast members were professional actors, and were selected instead in a street-casting process led by costume designer Nadia Acimi, a former romantic partner of Laxe's and a raver herself. Jade Oukid, a French photographer, amateur filmmaker and seamstress, was found at a festival in Portugal. Tonin Janvier, a French street festival performer, spent a significant part of his life in West Africa and lost a leg in a motorcycle accident. Stefania Gadda, an Italian rancher who lives off-the-grid, was found in the Spanish town of Órgiva on the recommendation of local residents.^[2][8]

Filming

Principal photography took place in Spain and Morocco from May to July 2024.^[10][11] Funding technicalities required part of the film be shot in Spain, and as such locations that could stand in for desert areas in the Moroccan Atlas and Anti-Atlas were actively searched for in the country.^[12] Originally Los Monegros was considered as an option, but Laxe was persuaded to shoot instead in the Rambla de Barrachina by the coordinator of the Aragon Film Commission.^[12] Laxe described the area as "chiseled by the gods" and the place reportedly gave him ideas to tweak the screenplay.^[12]

The production team filmed for a month in the provinces of Teruel and Zaragoza, before moving to Morocco for four weeks, where they filmed near Errachidia and Erfoud.^[13] Laxe stated that the production team faced intense heat and sandstorms while filming in Morocco.^[10] One particular sandstorm broke most of the equipment and lenses, resulting in extensive reshoots.^[14] The film was shot by Mauro Herce on Super 16 mm film.^[15][16]

Music

The score of Sirāt was composed by electronic musician David Letellier, known professionally as Kangding Ray. It was released by Invada Records on 17 September 2025.^[17][18]

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of 163 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "A brutal reminder that the journey can be more important than the destination, Sirât is an unforgettable exercise in tension that wallops its audience like a deafening blast of bass to the face."^[45] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 85 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[46] Upon its festival premiere, Sirāt polled as the best film in the 2025 Cannes Critics Survey conducted by IndieWire.^[47]

Jessica Kiang of Variety called the film a "brilliantly bizarre, cult-ready vision of human psychology tested to its limits". She praised Mauro Herce [ca]'s cinematography and Kangding Ray [fr]'s score.^[48] Damon Wise of Deadline wrote, "Part existential road movie, part apocalyptic sci-fi, [the film is] a puzzling mix of Zabriskie Point and Fury Road that starts with a bang but ends in a curiously minor key." He commended Laia Casanova's sound design.^[49] Lovia Gyarkye of The Hollywood Reporter echoed these sentiments, praising Casanova's sound design, but noting that the film "gets muddled near the end".^[50] David Katz of IndieWire gave Sirāt an 'A-' rating, describing it as belonging to a type of film [that is] "sui generis and evading any classification, emanating from a wholly personal vision of cinema while not resisting galvanizing, and sometimes crowd-pleasing, pleasures".^[51] Renaud Baronian of Le Parisien found reminiscences from the Mad Max saga in the film, but also from Lost Highway, The Wages of Fear, Sorcerer, Zabriskie Point, Gerry, and Nomadland.^[52] John Bleasdale of Time Out lauded it as "startlingly original, jarringly hilarious and deeply disturbing".^[53] Fabien Lemercier of Cineuropa wrote that Laxe "masterfully succeeds in creating an unforgettable [...] experiential film about man and the world, the collective and the individual, being and nothingness, radicality and universality, the intimate and the cosmic."^[54] Carlos Boyero of El País described the film as "strange in the best sense".^[55]

Manuel J. Lombardo of Diario de Sevilla gave Sirāt four stars, concluding that the film "invites us to a borderline experience from which it is difficult to emerge unscathed or indifferent".^[56] For The New Yorker's Justin Chang, what unfolds in between the film's beginning and its conclusion is "an experience of singularly turbulent and transfixing power" unmatched in terms of "sheer visceral excitement and sustained emotional force" in 2025.^[57]

In June 2025, IndieWire ranked the film at number 25 on its list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 2020s (So Far)."^[58]

Top ten lists

Sirāt has appeared on the following critics' top ten lists for 2025.

Accolades