Crossing Sirât: Oliver Laxe’s Faith-Infused Desert Vision

Oliver Laxe’s latest film, Crossing Sirât (Sirât), emerges as a daring, trance-like odyssey that fuses spirituality, desert landscapes, and the raw energy of rave culture — a project in which faith, fire, and cinema collide.

In Sirât, a father (Sergi López) and his son (Bruno Núñez) journey through Morocco’s desolate terrains in search of their missing daughter/sister, drawn by rumors she might be traveling with a nomadic rave caravan. Their quest gradually transforms from a physical search into a metaphysical voyage across borders of the self.

Laxe has described the film as one of his most radical works yet. He embraces Islamic symbolism through the title itself — sirāt (or Sirât) refers to the “bridge” in Islamic eschatology that connects the material world to spiritual realms. He speaks of transcending the ego in creation, of letting life’s shocks shake you into recognition of who you really are.

Visually and aurally, the film is ambitious: shot on 16 mm, it lingers in long, immersive takes; music (by Kangding Ray) and auditory space play a central role in transforming landscape into internal terrain. The desert becomes both crucible and mirror, dissolving boundaries between body, spirit, and terrain.

Laxe also reveals that he cast nonprofessional individuals from rave communities — not to act, but to be, to bring their lived experiences and scars to the frame. His aim: to create not a film about them, but a cinematic communion.

As Sirât continues to travel the festival circuit, it invites audiences to dwell in liminal space — between devotion and abandon, between spectacle and ritual.