Sirat (Sirāt) ★★★1/2

Availability: Now showing in theaters (limited release in November 2025 to qualify for the 2026 awards season; wider release in US in February 2026). Distributed by Neon, it is expected to stream on Hulu/Kanopy within the next few months. See JustWatch here for future rental and purchase availability, including streaming.

“Mad Max: Fury Road” meets “Io Capitano”

A father and his young son search for their missing daughter and sister among the stoned dancers at a rave in the Moroccan desert. Expect loud, thumping music, punk rockers, Goths, heavy metal types, drugs, and gorgeous scenery. Whatever else you were expecting, you are in for surprises—good and bad. You’ll get more than a taste of “sirat,” defined on the screen 30 minutes into the film, when the title appears for the first time: the narrow path, the thin line, between heaven and hell.

Father Luis (Sergi López) and son Esteban (Bruno Núñez Arjona)

hand out flyers in the midst of a rave in the Moroccan desert,

looking for their daughter and sister, who has walked away from home.

Heaven turns out to be communing with some of the frightening-looking dancers, a motley crew that absorbs the “normal” father and son into their orbit, their “family.” These five —2 androgynous women and 3 men—are non-professional actors sporting body jewelry, tattoos, missing and prosthetic limbs. They steer their 2 careening multi-ton vehicles, suitable for the “Mad Max” franchise, along and off dirt tracks—another sign of the sirat—in the desert and mountains of Morocco. Stefania Gadda (Steff), Joshua Liam Herderson (Josh), Richard 'Bigui' Bellamy (Bigui), Tonin Janvier (Tonin), and Jade Oukid (Jade) use their own names, part of the aura of authenticity that characterizes French Director Oliver Laxe’s Oscar-nominated film.

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They’re off the grid, by choice, and headed for the next rave—in Mauritania.

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Laxe’s protagonist—Dad Luis (Sergi López)—and his son Esteban (Bruno Núñez Arjona) are Spanish, adding to the international, or better, stateless, nature of the story and cast. As in other recent films, including “Train Dreams,” the 5 bizarrely coiffed and dressed dancers live outside a political frame, whether geographical or ideological. Civil unrest in Morocco and a column of military vehicles temporarily threatens to disrupt their path to pleasure, but they avoid learning anything about it. When one of them suggests they are entering World War III, another says “it’s been going on for some time.”  They’re off the grid, by choice, and headed for the next rave—in Mauritania.

The bizarre looking ravers include, from left, Steff (Stefania Gadda),

Tonin (Tonin Janvier), and Jade ( Jade Oukid), all nonprofessional actors,

here against the majestic backdrop of Morocco's mountains.

What matters is the created family, the rave, the ecstasy of drugs and sound (enormous speakers open the film and reappear later), the present. With their early-1980s camper van, barely adequate for the harsh terrain, Luis and Esteban attach themselves to the Mauritania-bound ravers. Their goal is not to participate in this detached way of life but to follow people who know how to get to the next rave, where the missing daughter might be found. The escape from where military authorities want to herd them is at first exhilarating, joyful, then communal; the sharing of food, fuel, money, and labor brings the mainstream father and son and the outsiders closer to each other. And there are pets: 2 dogs who shared the Palm Dog at Cannes. For a while, “Sirat” is an inspiring, even sentimental, road film. Heaven.

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For a while, “Sirat” is an inspiring, even sentimental, road film.

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Hell, the other side of sirat, will come for this band of 7, in ways so shocking, and so tragic, that some viewers may wish they hadn’t bought tickets. But of course, the trek over the mountains and into the desert beyond is the journey that is life, the narrow road, the thin line of tracks, traversing a Manichean universe governed by Laxe’s themes of contingency, unpredictability, and the capricious, similar to Kleber Mendonça Filho’s focus in the very different Oscar-nominated Brazilian film, “The Secret Agent.” The narrative’s trajectory, and a closing scene of open train cars carrying a polyglot of peoples, evoke a parable of traumatic, even nightmarish immigration, a current reality for millions (“Io Capitano,” 2023).

Steff (Gadda) gives Esteban (Núñez Arjona) an unusual haircut, a sign that

he and his father Luis (López, left) have become part of the "family."

Laxe and long-time collaborator and co-writer Santiago Fillol are savvy enough to let the interactions of the characters propel the narrative forward with minimal dialog. No one has a backstory or a history. All we know is that the young woman sought by Luis and Esteban was old enough to walk away; there’s no hint of foul play or of a runaway.

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Sound is critical.

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Along with cinematography that produces majestic and apocalyptic backdrops, sound is critical. The 3 sound editors have been nominated for Best Sound Oscar (the first all-female team to be honored), and Kangding Ray won Best Composer at Cannes. The thump of those speakers seems mysterious at first. And, like Luis, we don’t understand the music. As Jade tells him, when she invites him into her truck to see, touch, and feel the speakers up close as she repairs one left by the rave, the sound—no lyrics, ever—is not for understanding, “it’s for dancing,” for that ecstasy that envelopes the present.

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It's a Manichean universe governed by Laxe’s themes of contingency, unpredictability, and the capricious.

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2 Film Critics have now seen 4 of the 5 2026 Oscar-nominated International Feature Films. All are among the best films we’ve seen in the past year. All offer new ways of looking at existential issues and feature captivating, unknown (to us) actors bringing to the screen the question of how to understand the meaning of life in a troubled world at a difficult moment. Like “Sirat,” and in the tradition of Kierkegaard, Camus, and other philosophers of existentialism, most of these films approach nihilism, only to pull away and engage a perspective more hopeful and life-affirming.

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She says: Two great films about created families are “Shoplifters” (Japan, 2018) and “Housekeeping for Beginners” (North Macedonia, 2024). Family bonding is not the core of Laxe’s film, but he makes lovely and surprising use of it.

He says: One world turns into another—so fast it’ll make you scream. A definition of sirat.

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Date: 2025 (released in the US in February, 2026)

Director: Oliver Laxe

Starring: Sergi López, Bruno Núñez Arjona, Stefania Gadda, Joshua Liam Herderson, Richard 'Bigui' Bellamy, Tonin Janvier, Jade Oukid, and Pipa the Jack Russell and Lupita the Podenco mix

Country: Spain (a Spain-France co-production; submitted by Spain for the Best International Feature Oscar)

Languages: Spanish, French, Arabic, subtitled in English where necessary for the plot, and some English

Runtime: 115 minutes

Oscar Nominations: Best International Feature Film, Best Sound (Amanda Villavieja, Laia Casanovas, Yasmina Praderas)

Other Nominations: 29 wins and 102 other nominations