How Spanish Oscar hopeful 'Sirt' threw the years hottest rave

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Since the advent of the rave in the late 1980s, filmmakers have attempted to incorporate underground dance festivals into their works with varying degrees of success.Oliver Laxe has now graced us with a hypnotic party for the ages in “Sirāt,” Spain’s 2026 Oscar submission for international feature — a rave that isn’t just eye candy but a central plot point, where a middle-age father (Sergi López) searches for his missing daughter as the world descends into chaos.For Laxe, who has been embedded in the nomadic rave scene and free party movement for decades, authenticity was key.

His team worked with production designer Laia Ateca and two different collectives, Trackers and Drop’in Caravan, to bring the party to life.After a deep dive into the peak rave scene of the 1990s and early 2000s, Ateca took a weekend research trip that opened her eyes to the culture.

There was one element her boss was adamant about, however.He wanted a gigantic wall of speakers, a wall of sound that matched the walls of the mountain surrounding their location in Rambla de Barrachina, Spain (standing in for Morocco).

However, in order to capture the true spirit of a contemporary rave, the production had already agreed to stage a three-day event essentially run by the collectives.That meant compromising to make it as real as possible.“Don’t stop the music for four days.

Don’t overlight because the rave mood needs to be intimate at night — so we couldn’t put cinema lights.It would break the mood,” Ateca notes.

And if the requirement that the film use the collectives’ usual speakers at first gave them pause — they “were a little bit smaller than what we wanted” — Ateca soon had evidence that size doesn’t always matter: “I have videos at the bar, which is not on the dance floor, and you can see the waves of the sound [in the drinks].The speakers were so loud, you don...