There's a new existential road movie in movie town. As part of the process of understanding the strangely beguiling Sirāt, a minimalist rogue of a film which has won much love with critics and discerning cinephiles, our minds naturally lean into the comparison game. Aside from the natural parallel to the Mad Max netherworld, director/co-writer Óliver Laxe ’s arid yet somehow tension-pumped film can also call to mind Easy Rider, Monty Hellman's Two-Lane Blacktop, and Michelangelo Antonio's classic desert trip-out, Zabriskie Point.
Even so, one of Sirāt’s particular powers is its unique personality, which situates us in a milieu dripping in placesness. We are there, in the rugged, dry expanse of the road in Morocco, with a motley band of characters venturing from one rave to another toward a mysterious destination that, plot spoiler, never quite materializes. Close-up shots of the rough roads and railroad tracks whizzing by are interspersed with scenes of the human story at hand, reminding us that the road itself is a critical character here.
Laxe is clearly onto something, having nabbed the prestigious Cannes festival Jury Prize, top prizes in the Spanish Goya Award, and been anointed by many critics’ Top 10 lists for 2025. But it is an acquired taste kind of film.