During a politically turbulent time, a father with his son joins a group of strangers to search for his missing daughter in North Africa.
Simple premise, anything but a simple film…
From the opening sequence, Sirat establishes its identity through atmosphere rather than exposition. The neutral, dusty colour palette immediately emphasises the film’s (almost) spiritual emptiness, while the slow editing pace and steady rhythm force the audience to absorb every detail of the rave party unfolding onscreen. The camera lingers but also drifts between crowds and isolated individuals with patience, observing rather than judging. And that realism becomes even more fascinating when one realises that, apart from Sergi López, most performers are not professional actors at all, but real off-grid individuals and street performers inhabiting the world as extensions of themselves.
That authenticity gives the film a certain quality. The trailer and logline suggest a straightforward search narrative, but once the father and son merge with this wandering collective, the film transforms into something far stranger and far more unpredictable. It becomes a psychedelic Odyssey across unforgiving landscapes – both literal and psychological. A journey of movement, grief, survival, and existential collapse.
And then it happens. Without warning, the film reaches a moment so sudden and so devastating that your blood freezes. Not because it is sensationalised, but because of how matter-of-factly it unfolds. You need a moment to process it. And once you do, a single question takes over your mind: What now?
The reactions to the film have understandably been divisive. “Worst film I have viewed in years” and “One of the best films I have seen this year” (IMDb) are both sentiments floating around online, and strangely enough, both make sense. Writer Santiago Fillol and co-writer/director Oliver Laxe deliberately reject conventional storytelling structure in favour of experience and interpretation.
The result is a contradiction: a tight emotional story unfolding through an intentionally loose plot. Whether you embrace or reject Sirat will ultimately depend on your relationship with cinema itself. Because this is less a film you simply watch – and more a journey you either surrender to or refuse altogether.
P.S. Spain’s official submission for the Best International Feature Film category of the 98th Academy Awards in 2026 – and Best Sound.
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