Winner of the Jury Prize at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, Oliver Laxe’s nerve-shredding, trippy, nightmarish odyssey begins with a wall of weathered speakers being assembled in a gully surrounded by mountains in the barren Moroccan desert. Soon a wall of throbbing techno bass causes the crowd of stoned ravers to undulate to the music. In the crowd- Luis (Sergi Lopez) is handing out fliers searching for his missing daughter. He is accompanied by his young son Esteban (Bruno Nunez Arjona) and their little dog.
The military arrive and break up the party and Luis and his son slip free from them and follow a caravan of nomadic, tattooed, drugged-out travelers heading to another rave further down south. They try to dissuade Luis from following, pointing out his vehicle won’t be able to traverse the rugged terrain but he heedlessly pushes on, and is eventually adopted by the hedonistic family.
Now here’s where discussing the film gets tricky because what happens next you can’t really reveal. Suffice to say there are several brutal and cruel twists of fate ahead. In the background, heard in snippets on the radio, it seems there is some war-like, cataclysmic event in progress. But we stay with the stoner caravan as they journey deep into the unforgiving desert. It’s a hypnotic, mystical, occasionally horrifying trip indeed, eventually revealing an apocalyptic landscape of grief and trauma. This truly is an extraordinary film.
Extraordinary indeed! A Powerful Favorite Film of 2025!!
SIRAT looks fantastic. And what a great review. It’s such a pleasure to hear about beautiful films that go beyond the box office standards. Love it.
Saw this at the Morelia International film festival a couple a month or so ago. There isn’t much more one might say about the film without spoiling the experience for someone who hasn’t seen it, but the performances are excellent and the music and cinematography contribute to making it worth the plaudits.