We see the hands of roadies placing gigantic audio speakers on top of and beside each other on the arid plains of the Sahara Desert in Morocco. When they are finished, their work is revealed as a literal wall of sound, designed to super-amplify the techno beats of an incognito rave. As the propulsive rhythm floods the desolate location framed by towering red canyon walls, ravers let themselves go in an uninhibited dance frenzy, most of them lost in drug induced or spiritual ecstasy. Yet, among this throbbing mass of humanity, two people have not come to dance. Luis (Sergi Lopez) and his young son Esteban (Bruno Nunez Arjona) have come to distribute flyers for Esteban’s missing sister, who is a fan of raves and could possibly be here. So begins Oliver Laxe’s Sirat (2025), a cinematic journey that is both corporeal and metaphysical as a search for a missing person evolves into a life or death encounter with the unknown.
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Cinema Sojourns 