TIFF 2025: Sirât Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

One of the most talked-about films to emerge from Cannes this year was Sirāt, the fourth feature from Spanish filmmaker Oliver Laxe. The film would tie with Sound of Falling for the Jury Prize (third place at Cannes) and has since been chosen as Spain’s official Oscar submission, placing it squarely amongst a competitive Best International Feature race.

Set against the unforgiving expanse of the Moroccan desert, Sirāt follows Luis (López), a father searching desperately for his missing daughter Marina, who he believes has joined a nomadic raver community. Alongside his young son Esteban (Nuñez) and their dog Pipa, Luis drifts from rave to rave, handing out flyers and clinging to hope that someone has seen his missing daughter. When a group of drifters announce plans to embark on a journey deep into the desert to attend an exclusive rave, Luis convinces them to let him and Esteban join, despite the danger that awaits. What begins as a story of grief and found family gradually transforms into something larger, almost biblical in scope, confronting the fragility of life in ways that are shocking and sure to be divisive.

Laxe has dedicated much of his filmography so far to exploring the desert, and here he captures its scale and mystery with striking cinematic force. The film’s opening is especially gripping: a camera circles dancers at a rave, while the thundering EDM score reverberating as Luis and Esteban move awkwardly through the chaos, desperate to make contact in an environment clearly foreign to them. In these moments, Sirāt feels alive, pulsing with authenticity, helped by the fact that many of the ravers appear to be real members of this community rather than trained actors. Unfortunately, the film soon stretches into long, arid passages that dilute its momentum, and when it makes its shocking narrative pivot in the third act, it abandons the story it was telling almost entirely, feeling like a betrayal to audience members who were invested in the narrative up until that point. That said, the third act, taken in isolation, delivers some undeniably thrilling moments and makes for an engrossing theatrical experience. It’s hard not to be shaken by the wild turns Laxe takes the narrative, even if it ultimately begins to recycle its own tricks to diminishing effect.

Whether audiences embrace the film’s leap, or dismiss it as mere shock value, will likely define their overall response to the film as a whole. While the narrative never fully ties together, there is much to admire. Laxe captures the desert rave community with striking authenticity, draws committed performances from both seasoned actors and non-professionals, and crafts sound design so precise and immersive that a Best Sound nomination would be very well deserved. Laxe swings for the fences, which is admirable, but the shift from suspenseful odyssey to something far more allegorical and almost comically pessimistic feels abrupt, burying character and nuance beneath symbolism that is only half-realized. The result is a film that is strong in parts but uneven as a whole.

While Sirāt may not be the opus Laxe intended, it remains a bold and audacious swing that highlights his potential as an exciting auteur, in what will leave audiences eager to see where he ventures next.

still courtesy of Neon/Elevation Pictures

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Tristan French