Most critics like Sirāt a great deal: sixteen of nineteen reviews are positive, and only two reject it. The praise clusters around the sound. Almost every review names the techno score and the sound design, and several single out the opening rave, shot close and loose among nonprofessional ravers, as the film’s strongest stretch. The desert landscapes come next, along with the twists in the second half, which most reviews describe as brutal and decline to detail. The reservations gather at the ending. The Hollywood Reporter finds the last act muddled, The AV Club thinks it too literal, Screen Daily finds the effect inconclusive, and The Wrap tires of the brutality. The two dissenters go further: The Guardian says the film loses meaning altogether in its second half, and The Skinny calls it sloppy and politically careless. Almost nobody argues about whether it is well made; the argument is about whether the second half earns what it puts the audience through.
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Little White Lies
16 May 2025 · 4/5/5 · David Jenkins
100
The critic lauds it as a staggering major film that builds a community around a missing person search before pivoting into a symbolic fable dealing with survival and worship. They single out the audiovisual template of bass-heavy music and the ravers' utopian vision.
The critic calls it a startlingly original mix of The Wages of Fear and The Vanishing on shrooms, praising the desert landscapes, the makeshift family of ravers, and the dangerous twists in the second half.
The review hails it as an early contender for film of the year and an arthouse-to-mainstream crossover hit. They praise the body-melting techno soundtrack, the spectacular and gnarly desert sequences, and the unguessable brutal twists.
The critic praises the film's evocative imagery and sound design as a powerful, vibe-driven experience that evokes rather than explains. He highlights its unpredictable narrative turns and existential dread while noting its reminder of cinema's ability to move viewers through visuals and rhythm.
The critic describes the film as an astonishing, propulsive work of singular turbulent and transfixing power that begins in exhilaration and ends in despair while revealing compassion amid fate's cruelty. He singles out its intimate exchanges, communal bonds and the way it leaves the viewer invigorated rather than drained.
Óliver Laxe’s desert rave odyssey Sirāt is unlike any other film, beginning with an extended sequence of exultant revellers before taking us on a journey to the edge of the abyss. It is a piece of extraordinarily visceral film-making that combines deep spirituality with nihilistic abandon.
The critic calls the film a vital, unpredictable mind-blower that mixes adventure, trippy odyssey, loss, and dancing with maximalist confidence. They single out the immersive opening rave, the sound design, and the gut-punch twists leading to a shattering climax.
The review hails the film as a spectacular, groundbreaking rave tragedy centered on a father's desperate search. It singles out the visceral desert journey and unexpected tonal shifts for their emotional and cinematic impact.
Oliver Laxe’s unpredictable epic about a Spanish father searching for his missing daughter is produced by Pedro Almodóvar and wastes no time in subverting all possible expectations. It is explosive, ovation-worthy cinema with a jaw-dropping plot swerve.
The film is praised for its mesmerizing unease and devastating narrative rug-pull that shatters the characters' illusions of security. It singles out the nonprofessional ravers' performances and the ambient-to-thrilling tension for building the impact.
The critic describes it as a thrillingly hypnotic, pulse-pounding look at spiritual anguish and communal bonds among ravers in an apocalyptic desert. It praises the score and group dynamics but notes a too-literal ending undercuts the journey.
The review calls it a sensorially rich, trippy desert odyssey and vivid parable about human possibility amid fate and nature. It singles out the spectacular landscapes, hypnotic music, and tense set pieces for their immersive power.
This sun-torn survival thriller from France’s Oliver Laxe doesn’t merely rack its audience’s nerves but stretch them out to banjo-string tightness. It is a cryptic cinematic object that feels retrieved from the wreckage of an ancient alien ship, like Mad Max by way of David Lynch.
The critic calls the film an energizing if imperfect meditation on grief, loss, and societal collapse, praising its painterly desert landscapes and hypnotic techno elements while noting muddled narrative coherence toward the end.
Oliver Laxe’s Cannes prize winner about a father’s search for his missing daughter starts impressively then descends into Pythonesque perdition. The film leads the audience into a wilderness of non-meaning that becomes exasperating and bizarre.
Oliver Laxe’s wildly striking film is a desert road movie set to a rave soundtrack and a hum of existential dread. It is a visceral audiovisual spectacle that calls to mind The Wages of Fear and Stalker.
12 November 2025 · festival review · Amy Nicholson
The critic finds the film taut, riveting and nearly all mood, a euphoric yet shocking existential road thriller whose sharp twists and techno energy make it worth seeing. She singles out its documentary-like shooting of the opening rave and the way it makes viewers feel the exhilaration and dread of the journey.
The critic describes it as a bold long strange trip and mystic-existential odyssey, noting the suspense and risk-taking but some frustration with inconclusive effect and lack of conventional drama. They praise the setting and music.
The critic praises the film's auditory feast and sound design in this sensorial desert parable about a father searching for his daughter amid raves and a crisis. They highlight how the music and landscape create a trance-like experience of the sublime.
The critic calls the film a sincere, mesmerizing and unorthodox thriller that invites love while testing patience through its loose story and demanding characters. She singles out its focus on life, death, laughter and mourning amid the ravers' ordeals in the Sahara.
The critic calls it a brilliantly bizarre, cult-ready vision that defies narrative and genre laws with an excruciatingly tense, escalatingly insane road trip through desert purgatory. She singles out its testing of human psychology to its limits in a peri-apocalyptic setting.
The review follows a father and son searching for their missing daughter amid hints of world-ending events at desert raves, praising the beautiful 16mm cinematography of vehicles crossing the desert and the masterful electronic score that shifts from festival energy to emotional depth. It highlights themes of chosen family, environmental naivety, and dancing through collapse as the film builds to a harrowing conclusion.
The critic calls it a puzzling mix of existential road movie and apocalyptic sci-fi with indelible images and powerful sound design; notes it starts with a bang but ends in a minor key, framing family and loss in a new way with a killer soundtrack.
The critic describes it as a bold but exhausting road movie in a decaying world, akin to Mad Max without the stunts or fun; praises the vivid community and sound design but finds the insistent brutality tiring.
The critic finds the film delivers a thrilling sensory experience through its visuals and sound but criticizes it for being sloppy, cynical, and politically insensitive in its handling of themes and plot turns.
The critic finds the first half a predictable but sweet road-trip story of a father and son searching for their missing daughter at a Moroccan rave, building unexpected bonds with a group of ravers. The sudden, devastating mid-film shift turns it into a harsher, more ambitious allegory for displacement and mortality, though the execution feels jarring and somewhat mean-spirited.
The critic finds the film visually stunning with its apocalyptic desert vistas and searing heat, while singling out the exceptional sound design and hypnotic techno score as making it even more incredible than it looks. It exerts a hypnotic grip through its mix of professional and amateur actors and a spiritual quest evoking Mad Max: Fury Road or Wages of Fear with its own poetry and rigour.
Ordered by the weight we give each publication, then by score. Scores are normalised to 100; * means inferred from an unrated review. Summaries are ours, not quotations; follow the links for the reviews themselves. How we rate
