Neon has secured distribution rights to another critical favorite Cannes film, this time Oliver Laxe’s road movie “Sirât.” The film follows a group of individuals who meet at a desert rave and go in search of a missing girl.
Co-written by Laxe alongside frequent collaborator Santiago Fillol, the film stars Sergi López, Bruno Núñez, Stefania Gadda and Jade Oukid. Neon is planning a North American theatrical release later this year.
In his review for TheWrap, Steve Pond praised the film’s craft but noted its constant brutality gets tiring.
“‘Sirât’ is bold in its depiction of a decaying world in which some people can still find release. But its insistent brutality feels less bold than exhausting, and the question asked by one of the characters – ‘Is this what the end of the world feels like?’ – has an easy answer: Hell, yeah,” he wrote, adding that “Sirât” follows a trend of Cannes films this year that use genre and historical eras to point to the current dark and troubling state of the world.
“Sirât” is produced by Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar and Esther García under their banner El Deseo, Xavi Font and Oliver Laxe for Filmes Da Ermida, Oriol Maymó for Uri Films, Mani Mortazavi and Andrea Queralt for 4A4 Productions, and Domingo Corral for Movistar Plus+. Associate producers include Fran Araújo and Guillermo Farré for Movistar Plus+, and Holger Stern. The Match Factory is representing the international sales rights to the film.
The deal was negotiated by Neon’s Sarah Colvin with Agathe Valentin and Thania Dimitrakopoulou of The Match Factory on behalf of the filmmakers.
The news comes following Neon’s recent acquisitions of critically acclaimed In Competition titles “The Secret Agent” from Kleber Mendonça Filho and “It Was Just An Accident” from Jafar Panahi. This year in Cannes, Neon debuted Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” Julia Ducournau’s “Alpha” in competition, Raoul Peck’s “Orwell: 2+2=5” and Michael Angelo Covino’s “Splitsville” starring Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona, which Neon also produced.
