Luis, his son Esteban, and their dog Pipa travel to the southern Moroccan desert to the rhythmic, pulsating epicentre of an underground rave. They are looking for Luis’ daughter, Mar, last seen at a festival, who has been missing for five months. Night and day blur into a whirlwind of droning beats and rolling bodies. The newcomers hand out “missing” flyers tirelessly, stopping only to sleep and eat. On the third day, soldiers evacuate the partygoers due to an unnamed war. With the looming threat of martial law, Luis, Esteban, and Pipa join a crew of ragtag ravers on a journey across an endless desert in search of family, be it blood or found.

The winner of the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Competition and Spain’s submission for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards, Oliver Laxe (Fire Will Come, Mimosas) returns with a viscerally unforgettable film that will leave you entranced, hypnotised and defibrillated. Mauro Herce’s Super-16mm cinematography brings us to the heart of the desert. We feel every grain of sand on our skin and the speaker grilles under our palms as David Kangding Ray’s tribal score of meditative, ambient techno pumps through our blood. As a road movie, Sirāt follows the cast on their chaotic journey across a barren desert. It’s a tale of self-discovery, family and human kindness. But Laxe’s depiction of their pilgrimage yields a result that is all at once metaphysical, life-altering, and reality-warping. In Sirāt, the search for wholeness has a steep price to pay. - Mercy Prisca Lam