He is in Los Angeles for the interview and will travel to New York a few hours later. After that, the BAFTA Gala in London, the César Gala in Paris and the Goya Gala in Madrid await. Then back to LA and the Oscars.
Oliver Laxe is tired.
"I've been in LA for two weeks now and have been able to sleep in the same bed for that whole time. That's helped. But when everything about the Oscar is over, I'm just going to sleep."
Laxe's journey with "Sirãt" began at last year's Cannes Film Festival, where the film won the Jury Prize and the Best Music Award. It has since traveled to a number of festivals and will soon end at the Oscars.
Deadly journey
“Sirãt” (Arabic for “road”) is about a man and his teenage son searching for his missing daughter, whom he believes is at a rave in Morocco. They don’t find her, but join some people who are going to another rave.
It becomes a dangerous - and, for several characters, deadly - journey through the desert, which raises many questions for the viewer.
"I want to make people feel the supernatural, to make them believe in a magical world. And when you talk about spirituality, death is something you have to address. I knew I had to create a kind of rite of passage for both me and the audience. Death is an important subject," he says.
"Sure, it's sad. But through sadness you accept loss. Life is sad. We lose our health, our friends, our material things. That's how it is. And the cinema is a place for catharsis."
Music is important
In Cannes, composer Kangdin Ray won the award for best music. Now the film is nominated for an Oscar not only for Best International Film but also for its sound work. Music and sound are incredibly important to the whole film.
"The composer and I worked together for a year and a half before we started filming. We took our time; I tried to describe the images I wanted to convey. I had a script version with links to music that I thought was the very essence of the film," says Oliver Laxe.
Filming in the desert posed problems, not least with sandstorms.
"But we were lucky. No one was hurt."
Age: 43.
Lives: In Paris.
Profession: Director, actor.
Previous films in selection: "Mimosas", "Fire Will Come".
Current: "Sirãt", which has its Swedish cinema premiere on March 6. (Oscar nominee in the category of Best International Film, where it competes against, among other things, "Sentimental Value".)
