“Sirāt”

“Sirāt” is an evocative and hypnotic journey that places grief and obsession against the vast, unforgiving landscapes of southern Morocco. While slow to start with an aimless feel, the film goes places you’d never expect and is filled with riveting (and equally shocking) moments.

The premise is simple and quite minimal, following a father (Sergi López) and his young son (Bruno Núñez Arjona) as they drift from rave to rave in search of Mar, the daughter and sister who disappeared months earlier into the nomadic and sleepless subculture. This is a story of two outsiders moving through a world of pounding electronic music, dust, sweat, and transient freedom, especially as they encounter helpers (Joshua Liam Herderson, Stefania Gadda, Jade Oukid, and Tonin Janvier) along the way.

There is a ton of emotional tension here, much of which stems from the desperation of a father and the quiet grief that’s shared between his youngest child. López grounds the film with a weary intensity, portraying a man driven forward by hope even as it visibly erodes. The search turns into something more fragile and unsettling, and the story has several tragic outcomes.

Director Oliver Laxe is deliberately slow and loose with his storytelling, and much of the film unfolds with a sense of physical and emotional wandering that feels improvised. This approach reinforces the themes of disorientation and loss, but it also makes the story itself feel as though its desperately searching for direction. It’s meandering and unhurried, which can test the patience of even the most tolerant audiences. Once the story kicks into gear, the film becomes unmemorable.   

Visually, the film is stunning, colorfully highlighting the deep amber and gold tones of the savage desert landscape. Cinematographer Mauro Herce captures the Moroccan mountains and desert with a raw, elemental beauty. The burning daylight, endless horizons, and night sequences are pulsing with sound and movement. It’s beautifully shot, which works in tandem to capture the overall mood of the story.

When Laxe allows the silence, tension, and atmosphere to take over, “Sirāt” is at its most quietly compelling. It may not fully succeed as a traditional narrative, but this mood piece about grief, endurance, and the limits of hope somehow remains unforgettable.

By: Louisa Moore