In his debut You Are All Captains (2010), Óliver Laxe blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction, probing questions of authorship and control, with creative agency at the core. Half a dozen years later, with his sophomore feature Mimosas, he shifts toward the spiritual testing grounds of the metaphysical, where characters grapple with doubt and destiny. Three years after that, in Fire Will Come (read review), Laxe moves from Morocco to the Galician region of Spain, exploring exile and ancestral ties through themes of guilt and forgiveness. His gut-wrenching, heart-filling fourth feature, Sirāt (read review)—critically acclaimed at Cannes—turns its attention to humility and humanity in the face of something vast and ineffable. What that “something” is, where it resides, and who bears responsibility is left open to interpretation. What emerges is a gripping portrait of nomadic travellers whose attunement to intense living offers solace to those who have strayed from their own path.
NEON released the film theatrically this month (it continues to play major pit stops on the film festival circuit) as it prepares for award campaigns – most recently nabbing several tech noms for the European Film Awards. I had the chance to ask the Spanish filmmaker about the physical space encounters he had while location scouting, his process for working with these specific rave sonic happy non-professional actors, and how he approaches time off between projects—both practically and personally.
