Holy shiiiiiit. That was my reaction, not once, not twice, but at least three times while watching the deceptively wild Sirāt.
I watch a lot of movies each year. I mean, a lot. And very few movies, even ones I love, evoke much of a reaction, let alone ones involving my jaw on the floor. When the film’s first “oh shit” moment strikes, I was stunned. Surprised. Confused. Had I just watched what I thought I watched? I had been lulled into a sense of EDM complacency, grooving to the drama’s rave-fueled soundtrack and enjoying what I thought would be a not-very-dark adventure through the Moroccan desert with a motley crew of colorful characters. And then what happens happened. I hit rewind to make sure I had just seen what I had seen.
Yep. It happened.
And Sirāt, Spain’s official entry for this year’s Academy Awards, continues from there, the threat of death never too far away even as director and co-writer Oliver Laxe tricks you repeatedly into thinking that things are headed in a different direction.
Most of the characters are ravers, and they’re content taking LSD and dancing in the desert. Laxe and co-writer Santiago Fillol slowly peel the onion on these individuals, revealing there’s more to them than their lust for fun and facial piercings. Laxe integrates their music so well into the movie it becomes its one character, a force for life where life is sparse.
But is all of it an illusion, intended to distract you from what Sirāt actually is: a survival thriller that is much deadlier and shocking than just about any movie of 2025?
When the next “oh shit” moment happens, it marks the beginning of an extended and utterly suspenseful climax that has to be seen to be believed. The moment happens out of nowhere, cast in the middle of a seemingly innocuous scene where nothing bad could happen whatsoever. It’s simply explosive and fires Sirāt into the stratosphere.
Where so many foreign-language Oscar contenders tend to be overhyped or dour dramas, Sirāt opts to go in a different direction. For everything that happens, it’s oddly not dark or depressing, at least in a traditional sense. It grabs you by the throat while it rubs your back. It is one of the best movies of the year, an unpredictable and unsuspectingly suspenseful rave-fueled thriller that defies convention. And expectations.
Review by Erik Samdahl. Erik is a marketing and technology executive by day, avid movie lover by night. He is a member of the Seattle Film Critics Society.