Sirât, the new Spanish film directed by Óliver Laxe is a harrowing experience for viewers. There will only one screening of Sirât at the Palm Springs International Film Festival on Wednesday, January 6, 2026, at 1:15 PM, at the ARCO Center (Palm Canyon Theatre). Winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, this mystical desert odyssey begins as a mournful family drama before transforming, without warning, into a relentless, existential thriller that will chill you to the bone.
It screened recently at the American French Film Festival at the DGA last night where was included as it is a French-Spanish co-production and is due in art house theatres in January. Sirât is a profound meditation on the fragility of the human condition and the illusions of safety embedded in the Western worldview. The film has been selected as Spain’s submission for consideration for Best International Feature Film for the 2026 Academy Awards. This is a tough film to watch but definitely worth it.
The title, Sirât, refers to the bridge in Islamic tradition that separates paradise from hell, and the film perfectly embodies this tightrope walk. The hedonistic freedom of the rave clashes violently with the brutal reality of a dissolving world, making the search for the daughter a metaphorical crossing for Luis (Sergi López, in a performance of rugged, silent desperation) and his young son, Esteban, who are trekking through the desolate expanse of Southern Morocco, searching for Luis’s missing daughter, Mar. Supported by a phenomenal ensemble of non-professional actors who bring a weathered, authentic energy to the ‘”found family” of ravers, Sergi López anchors the film with a deeply physical and moving portrayal of paternal grief and determination.
The quest of Luis and his son Esteban leads them to a massive, illegal desert rave – a chaotic, communal purgatory where electronic music producer Kangding Ray’s thunderous, physical score becomes a central character. When a looming global conflict forces an evacuation, Luis and Esteban join a ragtag convoy of crusty techno-nomads heading deeper into the uncharted, perilous wilderness. The opening ten minutes of the film have us observe a wall of speakers assembled in front to the bleak desert cliffs as the rave opens with its ponderous wall of intense techno dance music. We see Luis and Estaban wandering through the crowd with sheets of papers and a photo of Luis’ missing daughter Mar.
The auditory and visual assault on the viewers is demanding and disorienting until a group of soldiers abruptly roll up and put an end to the party, to the vehement protestation of the crowd. Luis (Sergi López), who arrives at the scene of this rave—his young son, Esteban (Bruno Núñez Arjona), and their dog Pipa in tow camp out in their van at the rave.
Luis and Esteban eventually meet a quintet of ravers—Stef (Stefania Gadda), Jade (Jade Oukid), Josh (Joshua Liam Henderson), Bigui (Richard Bellamy), and Tonin (Tonin Janvier)—who inform them that they’re headed to an upcoming rave at a different location where she could be found.
So, when a group of soldiers abruptly roll up and put an end to the party, to the vehement protestation of the crowd, Luis and Esteban end up following the group’s convoy trucks away from the melee and into the desert expanse.
Sirât proceeds as an existential road movie, with Luis and Esteban eventually becoming part of this chosen family of ravers as they journey deeper into the vast unknown of the desert and encounter various obstacles. The film keeps a loose and warm atmosphere through much of its runtime, as in an amusing moment when Luis and Esteban bond with the others as they nurse Pipa back to health after the dog ingests some LSD-contaminated feces.
The film settles in to a degree of tranquility until the group decides to take a high mountain dirt track which in which the characters are perched on the precipice of hell. When their route takes them along a narrow mountainside road, the precariousness of the convoys on the shifting gravel underneath road and things suddenly turn tragically worse. The raving life style is shattered.
The final stretch of Sirât becomes a vivid meditation on human possibility in the face of fate and nature’s tumultuous might, ending in a fog of ambiguity that mirrors the characters’ bewilderment. The hostility of the desert takes over and the forces of an unseen war chisel away at their very survival.
There is not doubt that Sirât is a most unsettling film and probably not for everyone. But director Laxe uses the moments of unbearable suspense to force his characters, and the audience, to confront mortality and the search for meaning at the edge of the world.
