Sirat: The Year's Most Transcendent Cinematic Experience

"Watching my film, you die. But people [have also said] they have a feeling of being more connected to life after watching it. People are more in their bodies, which is something we wanted. We wanted to suspend this level of perception, [through] the brain, which takes up too much space. I would say what we did is [closer to] a kind of shock therapy, you know?"

"The story concerns a man (Sergi Lopez) who takes his son (Bruno Nunez Arjona) to the rugged wilds of Morocco in search of his missing teenage daughter, riding convoy with a group of new-age travellers on their way to a rave in the desert. But Laxe's film turns on a clutch of shattering moments that take us to the dark heart of this odyssey."

Oliver Laxe, director of the Oscar-nominated film Sirāt, describes his work as a form of "sorcery" designed to create a transcendental cinematic experience. The film follows a man and his son traveling through Morocco's rugged landscape with new-age travellers, searching for a missing teenage daughter. The narrative contains shocking moments that reveal darker dimensions of the journey. Laxe explains that his film aims to suspend intellectual perception and move viewers out of their heads into their bodies, creating a shock therapy effect. Audiences report feeling more connected to life and more present after viewing, suggesting the film achieves its intended goal of shifting perception beyond cerebral engagement.

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