Latest news with #OliverLaxe
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Oliver Laxe's ‘Sirat' Sold by the Match Factory to Slew of International Territories After Cannes Jury Prize Win
The Match Factory has sold Oliver Laxe's 'Sirat' to a slew of international territories following its jury prize win at Cannes Film Festival on Saturday night. The Match Factory has secured distribution for the film in the United Kingdom and Ireland (Altitude), LATAM (Cine Video y TV), BeNeLux (Cineart), Germany and Austria (Pandora Film), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Japan (Transformer), South Korea (Challan), Taiwan (Andrews Film), Australia and New Zealand (Madman Entertainment), Poland (New Horizons), Sweden (TriArt Film), Norway (Fidalgo), Finland (Cinema Mondo), Greece (Feelgood Entertainment), Portugal (Nitrato Filmes), Former Yugoslavia (MCF MegaCom), Romania (Transilvania Film), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Aerofilms), Hungary (Cirko Film) and the Baltics (A-One Films). More from Variety Jeremy Strong Says Serving on Cannes Jury Was 'Like "Conclave" With Champagne' and Celebrates Palme d'Or Winner 'It Was Just an Accident': It 'Changed Me' Cannes Awards: Jafar Panahi Vindicated With Palme d'Or for 'It Was Just an Accident,' Marking Sixth Consecutive Cannes Win for Neon Kleber Mendonça Filho's Brazilian Epic 'The Secret Agent' Wins Fipresci Award at Cannes: 'A Rich, Strange and Deeply Troubling Story' Negotiations for additional territories are underway. Earlier this week, Neon acquired rights to release the film in North America, while Mubi will handle Italy, Turkey and India. BTeam Pictures will release the film in Spain on June 6 and Pyramide is distributing in France. 'Sirat' follows a father (Sergi López) and his son as they 'arrive at a rave deep in the mountains of southern Morocco,' according to its official synopsis. 'They're searching for Mar — daughter and sister — who vanished months ago at one of these endless, sleepless parties. Surrounded by electronic music and a raw, unfamiliar sense of freedom, they hand out her photo again and again. Hope is fading but they push through and follow a group of ravers heading to one last party in the desert. As they venture deeper into the burning wilderness, the journey forces them to confront their own limits.' 'Sirat' earned rave reviews out of Cannes, with Variety's Jessica Kiang calling it a 'brilliantly bizarre, cult-ready vision of human psychology tested to its limits' that defies 'all known laws of narrative and genre.' Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Sirât' Review: Oliver Laxe's Spectacular Film Could Be Cinema's First Rave Tragedy
Filmmaker Oliver Laxe brings a kind of humbling brilliance to 'Sirât,' his inaugural Cannes competition entry, after catching attention in sidebars for his previous films. It's the kind of film that Cannes attendees from far and wide come to the festival for: sui generis and evading any classification, emanating from a wholly personal vision of cinema while not resisting galvanizing, and sometimes crowd-pleasing, pleasures. Born in France to Galician parents, and shooting the majority of his work to date in Morocco, Laxe's work operates in the interstices of borders and cultures, but wholly bypasses appropriation. It's always visually transportive and grimly sublime, focusing on simple plots and conflicts that provide ample space for philosophical and existential contemplation. And 'Sirât' is undoubtedly his most fully realized work in his regard, notable too for folding in the visceral pleasures of contemporary genre and even blockbuster cinema. More from IndieWire 'The Phoenician Scheme' Review: Wes Anderson's Plans Go Awry in a Spirited but Shallow Caper Cannes 2025 Films Sold So Far: Lynne Ramsay's 'Die, My Love' Sells to MUBI in Major Deal The world Laxe creates is finely rendered in both the fore- and background, revealing much greater scope than its initial set-up lets on. Luis (Sergi López, in another powerful performance) is another variety of a recurrent character in cinema and television now: the stricken father, forced to bring his emotions further to the surface than he's typically comfortable with, and responding in disbelief to his offspring's opposing values. His teenage daughter Mar left five months ago for the Moroccan Sahara's illegal rave parties — and never returned. With no online communication, and little sense of her ultimate whereabouts or intentions, Luis and his young son Esteban (Brúno Nuñez) travel there themselves. Laxe soon gets in his first of many effective, incongruous fissures, as these remnants of a domestic family amble around a score of pilled and tatted-up partiers, the sub-bass and steady 4/4 house music kick pushing tension into the red. Pragmatically enough, after showing photos of Mar to a raver couple called Jade and Bigui (Jade Oukid and Richard Bellamy, playing version of themselves, like the majority of the cast beyond López), they mention she could be at a future party located south of where they are. They decide to join forces and navigate there together, and we allow Laxe another common modern auteur strategy: finally dropping the title card once the first act is well underway. But what quashes that opening rave introduces one of the film's most fascinating elements. A large convoy of military vehicles drive into the vicinity, and while there's little threat of violence or confrontation between the two parties, something catches our attention when a soldier wants to take the 'EU citizens' present into custody. As the drive begins, the radio mentions civilians massed at national borders, and statements from the NATO Secretary General. It's an alternate present or near-future, and the world is collapsing; suddenly, we understand the rationale of why Mar, and later her family, can disperse from where they permanently lived. Morocco emerges as an 'interzone,' like William S. Burroughs famously characterized it in 'Naked Lunch,' where European, African, Middle Eastern nationalities, as well as Islamic (the film's title derives from the religion's name for the bridge between hell and paradise), Christian and New Age (to cite the ravers) customs can commingle. Upon his film's very tactile and material basis, we can project any intelligent guess for backstory, yet it's one of the best examples of the 'anti-psychological' approach that experimental filmmakers such as Laxe (alongside Albert Serra and Yuri Ancarani) have been chasing over the past decade, with reference to their portrayal of bodies and landscapes. With another band of travelers — Stef, Josh and Tonin, the latter of whom has lost part of his right arm — in tow, the screenplay by Laxe and Santiago Fillol seems to lay out a plausible Point B to its a Point A: the potential reuniting of the family at the final rave in a sentimental, but satisfying catharsis. The ensuing first hour almost seems like a problem-solving 'adventure' film, with petrol to be bartered for and solutions found to traversing unsteady rocks and bodies of water. Laxe, I'm sure, would be flattered by comparisons to 'The Searchers' and the Mad Max series. Yet a shattering tragedy at around the film's mid-point upsets that trajectory entirely, as their convoy of cars become stationary, and confrontations with mortality must be sought. To expand on the very 'material' nature of this film, it never concedes to any scenes of now-routine psychedelic disorientation; Laxe and his ace cinematographer Mauro Herce are confident their mere photography of the space will burrow us into the characters' emotions and appreciation for the area's splendor, and also promise transcendence. Even if it shows civilization as we once knew it to be now perishing, the film pays tribute to contemporary leftist currents in imagining what a utopia after capitalism might look like. Collectivity could be our ultimate destiny: the community ritual of bodies attached to sublime music (and electronic dance music is more beautiful than many skeptics realize), the dispensability of the nuclear family in a world of greater co-operative labor and nurturing. Such hopes can seem strident or naive in the world where the majority of us live, but Laxe's true achievement in this film is magicking a scenario where their realization isn't just possible, but necessary. 'Sirât' premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution. Want to stay up to date on IndieWire's film and critical thoughts? to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best new reviews and streaming picks along with some exclusive musings — all only available to subscribers. Best of IndieWire The 25 Best Alfred Hitchcock Movies, Ranked Every IndieWire TV Review from 2020, Ranked by Grade from Best to Worst
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Cannes 2025 Films Sold So Far: Oliver Laxe's ‘Sirât' Acquired by Neon
The Cannes Film Festival is underway, and while the Marché Du Film is as booming as ever with exciting packages of future films, there are plenty of titles playing in competition or in the Cannes sidebars that could make a big splash at the box office or the awards season race for the right buyer. Last year's 'The Substance' was acquired by MUBI before it landed a Best Picture Oscar nomination and made $77.3 million worldwide. Here are the 13 films we predicted ahead of the festival could find homes quickly. We'll update the below list with all the acquisitions as they come in. More from IndieWire These Cannes 2025 Prize Winners Will Inspire Oscar Campaigns Cowboys vs. Accountants: The Real World of International Production Financing | Future of Filmmaking Summit at Cannes Section: CompetitionDistributor: NeonDirector: Oliver LaxeBuzz: Neon's buying spree continues in the distributor's quest to again win the Palme d'Or. This one though has some serious 'Mad Max' vibes, a film set amid explosive electronic music at a rave as a father ventures into the Moroccan desert to search for his missing daughter. The film stars Sergi López, Bruno Núñez, Stefania Gadda, and Jade Oukid and was even produced by Pedro Almodóvar. Neon picked up North American rights and is again hoping to release the film later this year. Just no spoilers please! Section: CompetitionDistributor: NeonDirector: Jafar PanahiBuzz: The Iranian auteur Panahi returned to Cannes for the first time since 2003 for this deeply personal film that was inspired and ideated during his second stint in an Iranian prison. Starring Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, and Vahid Mobasser, the film follows a group of dissidents debating whether to kill their former torturer. The film will be released in North America later this year. IndieWire's review called it a 'blistering moral thriller,' and with some of the best reviews of the festival so far, it now looks like a frontrunner for the Palme d'Or. This is also Neon's second time partnering with Panahi after previously releasing his film 'The Year of the Everlasting Storm,' which premiered in Cannes Special Screenings in 2021. Section: CompetitionDistributor: MUBIDirector: Mascha SchilinskiBuzz: Deemed literally the 'buzziest sales title' of Cannes by IndieWire's Ryan Lattanzio and Anne Thompson, 'Sound of Falling' landed at Mubi after a competitive bidding war. Mascha Schilinski's century-spanning coming of age film centers on four generations of women within the same family, all living in a small German farming town across decades. Though separated by time, their lives begin to mirror each other, leading to the question: Can memories be inherited, repeated, and ultimately, relived? IndieWire critic David Ehrlich likened Schilinski to being the next Sofia Coppola. It's clear that Mubi has a gem on its hands. Section: CompetitionDistributor: NeonDirector: Kleber Mendonça FilhoBuzz: If you're handicapping the Palme D'Or race, keep an eye on 'The Secret Agent,' because Neon and Tom Quinn clearly like it's odds if they're jumping to acquire it and keep their streak alive. The distributor picked up North American rights and is planning a theatrical release later in 2025. Star Wagner Moura has earned some early buzz for Best Actor at Cannes, and the film earned strong reviews for the Brazilian auteur behind 'Bacarau.' The film also stars Maria Fernanda Cândido, Gabriel Leon, Carlos Francisco, Alice Carvalho, and Hermila Guedes and follows a technology expert on the run who arrives in Recife, Brazil in 1977 during Carnival week, hoping to reunite with his son, only to realizes that the city is far from being the non-violent refuge he seeks. Section: CompetitionDistributor: MUBIDirector: Lynne RamsayBuzz: The first major sale of Cannes is one of the starriest, with Lynne Ramsay's intense drama about postpartum depression and motherhood starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson going to MUBI in a deal for $24 million, IndieWire can confirm. The film is also expected to get a healthy theatrical window and wide release, and MUBI acquired the North American rights in addition to Latin America, UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, BeNeLux, Turkey, India, Australia, and New Zealand. Our review wrote that Lawrence gives the type of performance that is made for the Cannes Best Actress prize in her 'feral' depiction of a woman in rural America engulfed by love and madness. Section: CompetitionDistributor: NeonDirector: Julia DucournauBuzz: It was a hot market title at last year's Cannes, and a year later the latest from the Palme D'Or winner of 'Titane' is back in the main competition. The film follows a 13-year-old girl whose world comes crashing down when she arrives home with a tattoo on her arm. Section: Special ScreeningsDistributor: Apple TV+Director: Andrew DominikBuzz: For his first film since the Marilyn Monroe biopic 'Blonde,' Dominik profiles the U2 frontman as he films the stage production of Bono's one-man show. Section: Director's FortnightDistributor: IFC FilmsDirector: Sean ByrneBuzz: A serial killer movie and a shark movie from the director of 'The Devil's Candy?' What's not to like? Section: CompetitionDistributor: A24Director: Ari AsterBuzz: Destined to be as polarizing as any of his features, Aster's pandemic-set fourth feature is a contemporary Western with a stellar cast that includes Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, and Austin Butler. Section: Un Certain RegardDistributor: TriStar Pictures and Sony Pictures ClassicsDirector: Scarlett JohanssonBuzz: June Squibb stars in this indie drama that is also Johansson's directorial debut about a nonagenarian who after 70 years returns to New York city and befriends a student. Section: Out of CompetitionDistributor: Apple TV+ and A24Director: Spike LeeBuzz: Spike Lee's reunion with Denzel Washington for a modern day reimagining of Akira Kurosawa's 'High and Low' looks like one of Lee's most commercial films in years, so it's fitting it will get a theatrical release before landing on streaming. Section: CompetitionDistributor: MUBIDirector: Oliver HermanusBuzz: Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor star in this romance set in 1917 amid the world of early 20th Century folk music. Section: MidnightDistributor: Focus FeaturesDirector: Ethan CoenBuzz: Ethan Coen's second solo effort again pairs him with his partner and writer Tricia Cooke, as well as star Margaret Qualley, who plays a small-town private eye investigating a church led by a dubious preacher played by Chris Evans. Section: Special ScreeningsDistributor: Sony Pictures ClassicsDirector: Sylvian ChometBuzz: 'The Triplets of Belleville' director brings his eclectic animated style to this biopic of the life of one of France's great artists, Marcel Pagnol. Section: CompetitionDistributor: MUBIDirector: Kelly ReichardtBuzz: Josh O'Connor, Alana Haim, John Magaro, Gaby Hoffmann, Eli Gelb, Hope Davis, and Bill Camp star in this heist film from the 'First Cow' director set in 1970 Massachusetts. Section: Director's FortnightDistributor: MetrographDirector: Christian PetzoldBuzz: Petzold's follow-up to the Berlinale prize winner 'Afire' is his fourth collaboration with actress Paula Beer about a woman taken in by a family after she survives a seemingly devastating car crash. Section: Out of CompetitionDistributor: Paramount PicturesDirector: Christopher McQuarrieBuzz: The eighth (and maybe final?) Mission: Impossible film sees Tom Cruise dangling from a biplane and going underwater to defeat an all-powerful AI. Section: Un Certain RegardDistributor: MUBIDirector: Akinola Davies Jr. Buzz: Davies Jr. is making his feature directorial debut after breaking out with the Sundance-winning short 'Lizard.' The film is a semi-autobiographical tale set over the course of a single day in the Nigerian metropolis Lagos during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis. Section: Cannes ClassicsDistributor: HBO Documentary FilmsDirector: Mariska HargitayBuzz: The 'Law & Order: SVU' star made her directorial debut with this documentary about the life of her mother Jayne Mansfield, the Playboy Playmate and '60s sex symbol who was killed in a car accident in 1967 when Hargitay was only 3 years old. The film will be released via HBO on June 20. Section: Cannes PremiereDistributor: NeonDirector: Raoul PeckBuzz: Peck returns to Cannes one year after 'Ernest Cole: Lost and Found' premiered there with his documentary about the life of '1984' author George Orwell. Section: CompetitionDistributor: Focus FeaturesDirector: Wes AndersonBuzz: Benicio Del Toro and Michael Cera star alongside newcomer Mia Threapleton (Kate Winslet's daughter), who holds her own as a nun in this zany period comedy about one of the richest men in Europe. Section: Un Certain RegardDistributor: A24Director: Harry LightonBuzz: Based on the book 'Box Hill' by Adam Mars-Jones, the film starring Alexander Skarsgard and Harry Melling follows an unassuming man swept off his feet when an enigmatic, impossibly handsome biker takes him on as his submissive. Section: CompetitionDistributor: NeonDirector: Joachim TrierBuzz: The Norwegian director's sixth film pairs him with 'The Worst Person in the World' star Renata Reinsve in this family drama about the reconciliatory power of art. Section: Cannes PremiereDistributor: NeonDirector: Michael Angelo CovinoBuzz: The team behind 'The Climb' return to Cannes with another comedy about a man who turns to his friends for advice amid a divorce, only to discover their secret is an open marriage. Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona star alongside Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin. Additional reporting by Samantha Bergeson. Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie The 55 Best LGBTQ Movies and TV Shows Streaming on Netflix Right Now
CairoScene
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CairoScene
Cannes Review: ‘Sirat' Is a Journey Through Hell
Cannes Review: 'Sirat' Is a Journey Through Hell A rave erupts in the heart of the Moroccan desert. Speakers throb like engines in the sand. The dirty clearing is surrounded by the Atlas Mountains looming large. The air is thick with dust. Every stomp of bare or booted feet kicks up clouds of it into the air. As the camera glides through the crowd, we see a layer of sand clinging to everyone. The sand is coating everyone's skin and sticking to their sweat-soaked clothes. It's as if the earth beneath their feet is trying to swallow them whole. The ravers look like a tribe of outcasts. Some dance with missing limbs. Others in patched, shredded clothing. Yet they seem free. The beat moves through them like a current. It syncs their bodies into one convulsing organism. Most of them look like they've stumbled out of a Mad Max film. Except for one man. He walks among them, out of place, out of sync. Clutched in his hands are flyers of his missing daughter. Behind him trails his son and a small puppy. The music keeps pulsing. He keeps searching. Six years after Viendra le feu (2019) won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize, Oliver Laxe returns with Sirat. Only this time, this co-production between Spain and Morocco is competing in the main competition. The film takes its name from the Sirat Bridge in Islamic tradition. According to tradition, the Sirat Bridge is a razor-thin path suspended over Hell that every soul must cross on the Day of Judgment. Only the righteous will make it safely to Paradise. It symbolises the ultimate test of morality. The film follows a father on a spiritual journey through the desert. The landscape becomes that bridge between life and death. We soon learn that he and his son have been searching for his missing daughter for five months. One of the ravers sympathizes with the old man. She tells him about another rave that is set to take place after this one. Only it'll take place much deeper in the desert. When he asks if she and her group are going there, they don't give him a clear answer. But he can sense it. That's where they're headed next. And maybe, just maybe, that's where his daughter is. Laxe uses 16mm film to capture their journey through hell. The grainy texture gives the images a psychedelic quality. In one hypnotic shot, the camera is fixed to the back of a moving truck facing the street. The ground seems to glide. Pebbles smear past in streaks. Then a single white line emerges, slicing the road in two. It holds steady for a moment, then breaks into dashes. The faster they move, the more abstract the road becomes. The old man and the ravers are taking a backroad to avoid the main one which is swamped with army vehicles and checkpoints. Not unlike the Sinai desert in Egypt. Soon, the journey gets harder. With no other route, they're forced to drive through the mountains. Laxe clearly nods to Sorcerer, William Friedkin's remake of Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Wages of Fear. Like those films, Sirat becomes a battle between man and nature. But here, the desert is even more punishing than the Latin American jungle. Narrow dirt roads snake up the mountain. One wrong turn and it's all over. As if that weren't enough, the land is scattered with mines left behind from World War II. Every inch forward is a gamble. The suspense is relentless. There were long stretches where I found myself at the edge of my seat. One scene in particular left me in complete shock. I gasped and covered my mouth. It's an image I'll likely never forget. I doubt I'll see a more jaw-dropping moment at Cannes this year. I have a strong feeling this film will walk away with an award, possibly Best Actor for Sergi López. His performance is the emotional core of the film. If there's one aspect that left me wanting more, it's the ending. After such a gripping, visually arresting journey, the film's final moments felt slightly underwhelming. It doesn't quite deliver the emotional payoff you might expect from a story rooted in loss. But perhaps that's the point. Closure is not always granted, especially in the wake of devastation. Sirat operates as both a physical and metaphysical journey between grief and transcendence. Laxe constructs a cinematic odyssey through purgatory. By the time it ends, you're relieved. Not because it doesn't deliver, but because it leaves you physically and emotionally drained.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Sirat' Review: Oliver Laxe's Beguiling Film Is a Desert-Set, Techno-Infused Meditation on Death and Grief
At some point in Oliver Laxe's beguiling new film Sirat, a character asks a fellow traveler their thoughts on what the end of the world might feel like. The friend considers the question before responding, somewhat half-heartedly: 'It's been the end of the world for a long time.' This sentiment haunts Sirat, which seemingly takes place in a near-apocalyptic future and follows a group of ravers as they journey through the Moroccan desert in search of one last party. Home for this crew is a worn-out caravan, stocked with food, water and other provisions. Community is anyone they meet either at or on their way to dance parties. And on the occasion they turn on the radio, the news warns of escalating wars, depleting resources and a breakdown in diplomatic relations. The harshness of this world, conjured by Laxe with his signature painterly vision, feels a lot like our own. More from The Hollywood Reporter Planes, Trains and Everything's a Mess for Upfronts and Cannes Travelers at Newark Airport Colombia Is Thriving, But Locals Worry About Tariffs Luke Evans Joins Noomi Rapace in Thriller 'Traction' Premiering at Cannes in competition, Sirat marks Laxe's fourth time on the Croisette. His debut You Are All Captain earned him an award in Directors' Fortnight in 2010; he won a prize for his 2016 Critics' Week film Mimosas and another for the gorgeous Fire Will Come, which premiered in 2019 in the Un Certain Regard sidebar. Sirat is the director's first film in competition, a charged meditation on grief and possibility in a world edging toward collapse. It is a beautiful film (Pedro Almodóvar is a producer) filled with those unhurried landscape shots the director loves so much. But the movie's message can be punishing and oddly muddied at times. Working from a screenplay co-written with his usual collaborator Santiago Fillol, Laxe crafts a story about itinerant characters negotiating the realities of different losses — on both societal and interpersonal levels. The desert is the perfect setting for this reflection, as the arid location functions as both a repository for overwhelming feelings and a reminder of our own smallness in the grand scheme of things. The last few years of global history, marked by the twin forces of a viral pandemic and an accelerating climate crisis, have underscored a discomfort with death. In the United States, at least, collective mourning is not a part of the culture, and the idea of death is met with avoidance rather than affirmation. Laxe, a French-born filmmaker of Galician ancestry, has been steadily confronting that in each of his projects. Mimosas was framed around the delivery of a body to an ancestral resting place, and while Fire Will Come principally observed an arsonist recently released from prison, it also meditated on the idea of cultural extinction. Sirat begins and ends with different kinds of losses. The film opens with Luis (an excellent Sergi Lopez) and his son Esteban (Brúno Nuñez) searching the grounds of an outdoor rave for his daughter Mar. Laxe indulges in languorous shots of people dancing to techno, blasted from a set of large outdoor speakers, in a small pocket of the desert. Their bodies sway to the rhythmic thumps of the hypnotic music, composed by the French artist Kangding Ray. His score is complemented by Laia Casanova's stellar sound design, which turns the ambient noises of the desert into their own soundtrack. Laxe displays a considered understanding of the cathartic self-expression inherent to techno and raves specifically. The kind of experience now associated with out-of-touch thrill seekers at Burning Man adopts deeper meaning here. Luis and Esteban snake their way through this crowd, handing out flyers of Mar in hopes that someone has seen her. The pair eventually come upon a group who wonder if Mar might be at the next dance party. Driven by desperation, Luis and Esteban follow the two vans carrying Stef (Stefania Gadda), Josh (Joshua Liam Henderson), Tonin (Tonin Janvier), Jade (Jade Oukid) and Bigui (Richard Bellamy) from this gathering to another one. At first, the veteran ravers try to get rid of Luis and Esteban, but the father and son duo are persistent. This journey of reluctant alliances at times reminded me of the one in Octavia Butler's novel Parable of the Sower, another work that deals with the forced itinerancy brought on by the end of the world. Sirat is at its most familiar as a Laxe-ian work in the middle, when this crew traverses the scorched landscape. Laxe revels in the beauty and imposing scale of the Sahara desert (where Sirat was filmed) with scenes of the cars rolling up steep mountains or getting lost in impromptu sand storms. The geographical isolation imbues the film with a haunting, almost otherworldly atmosphere. Ironically, Sirat gets muddled near the end. Although the last act is in many ways the liveliest — viewers will be jolted by a series of bleak twists — it's also where Laxe relinquishes narrative coherence in the service of making his metaphors more literal. The filmmaker leans into a sort of spectacle typically associated with genre works to wrestle with his theories about death as well as to actualize the film's title (which roughly translates to 'path' in Arabic), but his ideas — in part because of the sheer quantity — seem more embryonic here. There's also a dubiously judged scene in which more obviously racialized characters are used in a way that comes off as more aesthetic than meaningful. Despite these flaws, Sirat is an energizing film — a project determined to wake us up. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked
