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From the Wound: Oliver Laxe Talks About SIRÂT

Berenice Andrade Medina

Oliver Laxe gave a press conference ahead of the premiere of his latest film, Sirât, at the 23rd Morelia International Film Festival (FICM). The guest of honor at #FICM2025 spoke with journalist Erick Estrada about this film, shot in the Sahara Desert, which depicts characters who embrace their vulnerability and fragility. 

In Sirât, a father and son arrive at a rave in southern Morocco in search of Mar, the daughter and sister who disappeared months ago at one of those parties. There, they distribute her photo time and again. While their hope fades, they persevere and follow some ravers to one last party in the desert. But as they move deeper into the wilderness, the journey forces them to confront their own limits.

“Art is pushing boundaries, spirituality is pushing boundaries, and that's where you get to know yourself. I trained in psychotherapy in the Gestalt tradition, and we depart from the premise that we are all a little broken; we all have wounds, and each of us fills that void with love in different ways. In my case, it's by making films. I ask the viewer for love through what I do,” Oliver Laxe said about the spiritual basis of Sirât. 

In the film, dancing has an almost ritualistic meaning, closely linked to Laxe's own experience: “I have been praying with my body and crying and moaning, but I never stopped dancing. And I think that's what it's all about.” 

“It has a sacred aspect. I believe that our bodies have a memory of values, of lineage, of our ancestors. I feel that this film will connect with you [the Mexican audience].”

Oliver Laxe was born in Paris, France, in 1982. He is the son of Galician immigrants. When he was six years old, his family returned to Galicia, in northwestern Spain. After completing his studies in Audiovisual Communication, he moved to Tangier, Morocco, where he self-produced and filmed Todos vós sodes capitáns, a film that won him the FIPRESCI Prize at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight in 2010. In 2016, he received the Grand Prize at Cannes Critics' Week for Mimosas, filmed in the Atlas Mountains. Back in Galicia, he shot O que arde in the heart of the Os Ancares mountains, a film that won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. Fifteen years after his first appearance at Cannes, and after participating and winning awards in all its sections, Laxe makes his first appearance in Competition with Sirât, filmed in the Sahara desert.