Raving in the Ruins of the Future: Film Screening of Sirāt, followed by roundtable

Oliver Laxe’s much-acclaimed feature film Sirāt (2025) takes place in an indeterminate but all-too-familiar future, where the outbreak of what might be World War III comes to disrupt an international community of ravers who have gathered in the Moroccan desert to dance. The film asks and leaves unanswered critical questions as to what it means to rave as a religious practice in a world destabilized by political violence, the legacies of colonialism, and the accelerating crisis of stateless refugees. Following a screening of the film, panelists will offer short roundtable reflections from their own areas of expertise, reflecting on three interrelated thematics the film consistently addresses: 1) the discourse of raving as a religious practice; 2) the presence of Islam, and its theologies of spiritual transformation, pilgrimage, and prayer; and 3) the medicinal turn to psychedelics as psychospiritual tools for healing various forms of trauma.