Movies like Sirât don’t come along often – ones that take us on a visceral and emotional journey of sight and sound. Directed by Óliver Laxe, the story follows Luis, a father on a search for his missing daughter in the deserts of Morocco.

Acclaimed sound designer Laia Casanovas creates a feast for the ears, taking us on an immersive existential journey. Cassie Hager spoke with Casanovas about the long and rewarding process of bringing Sirât to the big screen.

Cassie Hager: Thanks so much for speaking with me today! To start things off, I’ve heard that bringing this movie to life was a very long process. A years-long process is quite a journey. Can you walk me through how you started and how you got to where you are today?
Laia Casanovas: In the case of Sirât, it has been a long process because the sound design alone took like 9 months. I came to the film when they were shooting to talk about what I would need, and after the shooting I met with Óliver [Laxe] and Kangding Ray, the composer, just to chat a little bit about the concept of the film. It was so enriching because it’s a project where you can implement so many things with sound design. Being a part of the editing process was great, because you can try lots of things. We used a lot of trial and error to find the right way to convey the emotions Óliver had in his mind.

Cassie Hager: In this film, the music is almost a character in itself. How challenging is it to tackle your vision combined with that of the composer and editor?
Laia Casanovas: We work very close and it’s a shared process. There are some moments in the movie where the sound seems like the music, and the music seems like the sound. I think that creative process was so enriching. It was a process of trial and error because we need to invite the audience to make an emotional journey. We were trying some things that are not standard, like cutting the music when a character is at his highest moment, and then going into isolation and silence. We made some decisions that weren’t conventional. 

Cassie Hager: Trying to channel these emotions must have been very impactful for you in your creative process.
Laia Casanovas: It was difficult. Like with the trucks, we tried several engines from different trucks. We tried once with the production sound, but we were concerned they were not expressive enough. We wanted to have a realistic sound, a roar, to highlight the emotions we wanted. We tried maybe 6 or 7 different engines before picking one. For the ambience of the desert, we tried a lot of pre-recordings we had for different winds. They had a lot of ambient noise, like grass and buzzing insects and such. There just aren’t any recordings of a desert atmosphere, so all the sound we used was real and organic. The desert is like a non-place, and was perfect for the location.

Cassie Hager: What was it like seeing the finished product in a big theater with surround sound?
Laia Casanovas: It was awesome seeing the movie at Cannes. The sound system was amazing. But also watching with an audience and seeing how they reacted was amazing. I remember hearing people gasping and all their reactions, and thinking “it works.” All those months were worth it.

Cassie Hager: Would you urge people to see it in a theater to get the full experience?
Laia Casanovas: I think Sirât is a movie that must be lived. If you watch the film in a theater in Dolby Atmos you will have the complete experience. I think it’s a movie that is meant to be watched on a big screen with a good sound system to feel the rumbling of the music and have a tactile experience and feel it in your body.

Sirât is currently in select theaters.