“An experience of singularly turbulent and transfixing power; for sheer visceral excitement and sustained emotional force, I haven’t encountered its equal this year.” - Justin Chang, The New Yorker
“SIRÂT is The Wages of Fear meets The Vanishing on shrooms; startlingly original, jarringly hilarious and deeply disturbing.” - John Bleasdale, Time Out
Set in a precarious near future, SIRÂT stresses what is left of globalization to the breaking point. Director Oliver Laxe sets a harrowing spiritual journey to an electronic pulse—an echo of the desert rave that opens the film in southern Morocco. Luis (Sergi López) appears there with his son Esteban (Bruno Núñez), searching for his missing daughter, who might be on her way to the next rave, deeper in the desert. Their paths intersect with those of a group of nomadic European outcasts as they navigate a beautiful but perilous landscape together.
Awards & Nominations
2025 Cannes Film Festival - Winner, Jury Prize
2025 Chicago International Film Festival - Winner, Gold Hugo for Best Feature
2026 Academy Awards - Nominee, Best International Feature Film; Nominee, Best Sound
2026 Golden Globes - Nominee, Best Motion Picture: Foreign Language
Contact Zones: Cinema of Globalization, 1989–2024
Fall 2026 Lecture Series
“We might have come to the end of something,” Adam Curtis reflected recently, referring to "globalization," which began with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. But just how well do we know this world that we were, until recently, living in? Brief lectures before screenings and open discussions afterwards will cover background on local histories related to films in the series as well as theories of globalization, neoliberalism, migration, and digital culture. Presented in collaboration with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism. Lecturer: Professor Daniel R. Quiles. Select titles offered with Sunday encores; encores do not include lecture.
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu