Ep1211: Through the Tunnel of Shadows: An Interview with Sirat Director Oliver Laxe

Ian sits down with director Oliver Laxe, whose 2025 film Sirat will compete for Best International Feature at next weekend's Academy Awards! In this harrowing story of grief, desperation, and alternative cultures, a father (Sergi López) attends a rave in the Moroccan desert to find his missing daughter. He has his young son (Bruno Núñez Arjona) in tow, and the pair wind up following a caravan of partiers deeper into the wilderness. There, they encounter tragedies beyond imagination, and face an existential crisis set to a cruel techno beat. In this brief interview, Ian and Oliver talk about the co-writer/director's unconventional approach to screenwriting; shooting dangerous and complicated scenes in the desert; and how movies kill their audiences and bring them back from the dead! Sirat opens in Chicago at the Music Box Theatre on Friday, March 6 (featuring a Q&A with Oliver and co-writer Santiago Fillol!). More info below. Support Kicking the Seat on Patreon ,

You can listen to Ep1211: Through the Tunnel of Shadows: An Interview with Sirat Director Oliver Laxe online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Ep1211: Through the Tunnel of Shadows: An Interview with Sirat Director Oliver Laxe is an episode from Kicking the Seat by Ian Simmons.

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This episode was published on Mar 6, 2026.

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