The Desert Strikes Back: Sound Colonisation and Desert Agency in Óliver Laxe’s “Sirāt”

This article analyses Sirāt (2025), Óliver Laxe’s hybrid Sufi road film set in the Moroccan desert, through the lens of soundscape theory and sound ecology, as well as posthuman theoretical frameworks. Focusing on the film’s immersive sound design, it examines how amplified trance-rave music functions as a form of sonic inscription that attempts to appropriate and dominate desert space. Drawing on theories of sound ecology and more-than-human agency, the author highlights how Sirāt presents the desert as an active, responsive entity resisting sonic colonisation. Through the interaction between electronic music, religious and environmental sound, and silence the desert emerges as a palimpsestic soundscape shaped by competing forces. The article demonstrates how Sirāt frames sound as a key medium through which ecological conflict, postcolonial tension, and spiritual transformation are articulated, positioning the desert not as a passive backdrop but as a living, agentive presence.