**FREE** Q&Awards: SIRĀT

Where to Watch: Exclusively in theaters February 6
**FREE** Q&Awards: SIRĀT

Description:

Sponsored by NEON


A father arrives with his young son in the Moroccan desert searching for his missing daughter. Learning that she has become entangled in the local rave culture, they team up with a group of nomads to journey deeper into the desert to find her, while conflict and danger erupt around them. (Synopsis by NEON)

Guest:

director/co-writer/producer Oliver Laxe; cinematographer Mauro Herce, AEC; sound designer/supervising sound editor Laia Casanovas

Guest Bio:

Oliver Laxe - Oliver Laxe was born in Paris to Galician parents, the family returning to Spain when he was six. He received his film education at Barcelona’s Pompeu Fabra University. To date, he has made four feature films, each one winning prizes at the Cannes Film Festival: You Are All Captains (2010) won the Directors’ Fortnight FIPRESCI Prize. Mimosas (2016) took home the Critics Week Grand Prize. Fire Will Come (2019) won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize. Laxe’s latest, Sirāt, garnered the Jury Prize and an AFCAE Award Special Mention.


Mauro Herce - Born in Barcelona in 1976, Mauro Herce graduated in Engineering and Fine Arts, before he enrolled at the San Antonio de los Baños (Cuba) and Louis Lumière (France) Film Schools. Since then, he has been working as a director of photography and occasional screenwriter in more than twenty feature films, fiction and documentary. Some of these works, such as ArraianosThe Fifth Gospel of Kaspar Hauser, Ocaso, A puerta fría and Slimane have selected and have won awards in important international festivals. Herce also made his feature directorial debut with Dead Slow Ahead.


Laia Casanovas - A 2012 graduate in sound engineering from ESCAC, she began her professional career as an effects editor with Oriol Tarragó at Coser y Cantar Estudio. Later, she debuted as a sound designer on the series 'Sé quién eres' and worked as a freelancer on film projects such as Albert Pintó's 'Malasaña 32'. In 2020, she moved to Madrid, where she worked as a sound designer on projects like Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo's 'Veneno', and Pedro Almodóvar's 'The Human Voice' (2020) and 'Madres paralelas' (2021), the latter of which earned her a Goya nomination in 2022. That same year, she opened her own sound studio with Oriol Donat: from Lima Limón Estudio, she has worked on projects such as Albert Pintó's 'Nowhere', Laura Jou's 'Caída libre', and Celia Rico's 'La buena letra'.