'Sirāt' Review
- Trevor Leavell
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 18 hours ago
Release Date: 02/06/26 [Cinemas]
Genre: Action. Adventure. Drama. Music. Mystery. Thriller.
MPAA: Rated R.
Distributor: Neon.
The Verdict: A Must-See
In the Moroccan desert, much lies beneath the sands that stretch miles north leading into the Sahara; it is hot and it is deadly. However, that doesn’t stop the party from going on. Hundreds come to the desert to take part in raves, shaking the dunes with the sonic force of EDM music. Further into these raves, we see a father, Luis, looking for his daughter with his son, Esteban. Luis’s daughter has been missing for five months and he believes that she is somewhere raving within the Moroccan desert. However, they find themselves, as well as these raves, in the middle of a military occupation that disbands these raves whenever possible. So Luis and Esteban find themselves with nomads traveling from rave to rave through the Sahara desert in hopes to find Luis’s missing daughter.
Sirāt comes from director Oliver Laxe, and is one of this year’s nominations for Best International Feature at this year’s Academy Awards. Laxe’s approach here feels similar to Gaspar Noe’s approach to his film Climax. Driven by the music that gets more and more intense as the journey goes on. The droning of the EDM score, brilliantly composed by artist Kangding Ray, is fantastic listening, but it also amps up the dread. As Luis and Esteban go on with these nomad ravers, one can feel there’s almost no hope ahead, and that feeling, along with the overwhelming score, can make the viewer feeling physically unwell. It gets mean. It gets nasty. What starts as a simple search turns into a hallucinogenic dance with death once the second half rolls in, and everyone must deal with the consequences of their rave odyssey.
Oliver Laxe’s direction here is very in your face here. Which can be a turn off for some viewers, but Laxe wants viewers to sit with the chaos that happens in Sirāt. He builds tension and dread excellently; however, he is in the least bit interested in granting satisfaction. Sirāt actually proves to be an excruciatingly punishing, but also poignant watch. It feels fitting to call it the feel-bad film from 2026. It’s hard to feel that most people will like, or even enjoy Sirāt, but those who are willing to go toe-to-toe with this film will leave with many ideas to chew on.
