A tense, sensory road movie that turns a search mission into a punishing spiritual ordeal. It’s best approached as an atmosphere-first thriller: hypnotic, abrasive, and emotionally devastating rather than plot-driven.
Sirāt
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Drama · Thriller
Fri · 1h 55m
Director: Oliver Laxe
Starring: Sergi López, Bruno Núñez, Stefania Gadda
Overview
A man and his son arrive at a rave lost in the mountains of Morocco. They are looking for Marina, their daughter and sister, who disappeared months ago at another rave. Driven by fate, they decide to follow a group of ravers in search of one last party, in hopes Marina will be there.
Director
Oliver Laxe
Cast
Sergi López, Bruno Núñez, Stefania Gadda
Curator Review
Verdict
A tense, sensory road movie that turns a search mission into a punishing spiritual ordeal. It’s best approached as an atmosphere-first thriller: hypnotic, abrasive, and emotionally devastating rather than plot-driven.
Best for
Viewers who like immersive, sensory filmmaking
Fans of apocalyptic or survival-adjacent thrillers
People drawn to rave culture, desert settings, and trance-like sound design
Audiences open to ambiguous, symbolic storytelling
Skip if
You want a tightly scripted, conventional thriller
You need clear exposition and tidy plot resolution
You dislike slow-burn films that become increasingly harsh
You prefer character-driven drama with extensive backstory
Overview
Sirāt is the kind of film that starts as a search and gradually becomes a trial. Oliver Laxe uses the desert, the music, and the movement of bodies to create a trance state that feels both ecstatic and ominous, with the rave setting becoming less a backdrop than a spiritual and physical test.
Worth noting
What makes it linger is the way it fuses grief, dread, and transcendence. The story is spare by design, and that spareness can feel either profound or withholding depending on your tolerance for abstraction. But the film’s sound, landscape, and escalating unease are undeniable, and the final stretch lands with real force.
Bottom line
This is not a crowd-pleasing thriller in the usual sense. It’s a severe, beautifully controlled descent that rewards viewers who like cinema to operate on mood, sensation, and metaphor as much as narrative logic.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Kylo (4★) · 8351 likes
The amount of anxiety I had for the dogs in this movie.
Pablo Caldera (0.5★) · 7184 likes
«Hacia el sur, cerca de Mauritania» Esta frase que se dice en Sirāt es una de las pocas indicaciones espaciales de toda la película. Está bien escogida, porque esconde todo un complejo geopolítico: Marruecos no tiene frontera con Mauritania, y es imposible que Laxe, que ya va por su tercera cinta rodada allí, no lo sepa. Solo si asumes que los territorios ocupados del Sahara Occidental (antigua colonia española que en 1975 fue abandonada a su suerte por la potencia… more
joereid (4★) · 7162 likes
Really thought it was gonna end with everyone dancing in the desert. I really did.
Kit Lazer (3.5★) · 7086 likes
This was like super chill and then ruined my life.
davidehrlich (4★) · 5959 likes
and that's why i don't go to raves.
Themes
grief, search for a missing loved one, desert odyssey, rave culture, spiritual ordeal, survival, parent-child bond, loss and transcendence