Join filmmakers Óliver Laxe and Ben Rivers for an on-stage conversation about their work, followed by a screening of Óliver's fourth feature Sirāt.
A father and his son arrive at a rave deep in the mountains of southern Morocco. They are searching for Mar, daughter and sister, who vanished months ago at one of these endless, sleepless parties. As they venture deeper into the burning wilderness, the journey forces them to confront their own limits.
Sirāt won the Jury Prize at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and received two Oscar nominations for Best International Film and Best Sound. Kangding Ray's score is nominated in the Discovery strand of the 2026 World Soundtrack Awards.
The previous evening, Encounters presents Sirāt Live at The Prospect Building, where Kangding Ray performs a live soundsystem set built from the film's music while Laxe VJs unseen footage shot on set. Not a screening with a soundtrack, but a new live work drawn from the film's world.
Laxe's previous features include Fire Will Come (Un Certain Regard Jury Prize, Cannes 2019), Mimosas and You All Are Captains. He moved to Tangier in 2006, where his early short films and a filmmaking workshop with children laid the groundwork for a career that has returned to Morocco repeatedly, including for Sirāt.
