Early morning in a rainy Madrid. Oliver Laxe (Paris, 43 years old) arrives with a tired face. “I have barely returned home, two or three weeks, since the Cannes premiere of Sirat”, indicate. In addition, he admits, he talked with his girlfriend until late at night. But shortened: “I have no right to complain, I am a blessed filmmaker. I take advantage of it.”
This Tuesday morning Laxe presents his installation HU/هُوَ. Dance like no one is watchingat the Reina Sofía Museum, which will be open until April 20, 2026. “I have wanted to exhibit here for many years, because it is a temple for artists. » The installation is divided into two rooms: in the first a pyramid of speakers emits a sustained vibration without melodic variations. In the second, the main, three walls surround the audience with an 18-minute loop created with images shot ten years ago by the Galician in Iraq in sacred architectures which merge with the dances. is ecstatic of three human beings (Sergi López and two other actors from Sirat), all with the music, the soundscape of Kangding Ray, also responsible for this section of the film. Gone are the small installations that Laxe created while he was a student at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Pontevedra, which he joined from the Audiovisual Communication Center. “I wanted to study film, and this is the closest thing I found.”
Ask. Is your world expanding with this installation?
Answer. Yes, because Hu These are not leftovers Sirat. Part of a creative process from which it also comes Sirat. Every art has its limits; Cinema has them too, for better and for worse. I’m always interested in exploring images in another way. And on the other hand… I don’t want to fall into this defense mechanism that the artist who comes to the museum often has, which is to see his work chewed up and intellectualized, with a rational discourse to disseminate. I refuse. I don’t want to impose my interpretation on the piece. I don’t know what I have, what I bring here, and I don’t want to know either. Let people enter cleanly.
Q. Of course, the music rave It extends further, we hear it throughout the ground floor of the Sabatini building.
A. Certainly, it leaves the installation and will absorb part of the museum. And we had to turn down the volume, because they were ringing up to our ears. Picasso, and there is no question of making them vibrate for five months (laughs). He had come up with more powerful tricks, like having the word Hu lasered into the stone of the building, which in Arabic means the primordial sound manifestation of the deity, and at the end of the five months, that burn would remain. They already told me that here, with fire, we don’t even joke. It pains me to think that filmmakers have to be outside the museum and those who enter are video creators. No, everything can be the same, everything can flow. I worked here as in the rest of my films.
Q. Do you continue with your working method which avoids patterns?
A. Of course, I actually found success working as a sculptor in the film industry. Of course, the constraints of narrative cinema and the system seek to tell stories through hackneyed and highly schematized formulas. I refuse, I am a sculptor. The way I worked the image in Sirat, Ray’s work with music, sound. This is a more structural task, focused on the subject itself. When I talk to Ray, the composer, to define sound and image, we use words like grain, brilliance, texture, rhythm, tempo, color… Then, in cinema, obviously, the story is important and I don’t deny that.
Q. So, do you still feel comfortable making films?
A. Very comfortable. I think cinema has this balance between high culture and popular culture, which functions as a reactive element. The artist has to get off the horse a little. My film will arrive in theaters, I insist, in theaters, in 85 countries. It’s currently being released in Romania, Poland… And people are watching it. It works in all countries. In Hu, I was able to further explore certain issues that interest me, such as the sacred, nature, the contemplative… And I am very grateful for that.
Q. That in the middle of the commercial career of Sirat and prices. Today, the first screening of the Oscars is announced in several categories, with the possibility of your film being among the 15 international finalists for film and soundtrack.
A. Those of us who work in film give ourselves many rewards, don’t we? Almost too much. And at the same time, it’s also a very beautiful moment. There is recognition for a film which, since Cannes, has gained the respect of all world cinematography. Wherever we go. In the United States, I receive messages from producers and directors very high. People are aware of the cinematographic and industrial feat that we have achieved. It’s a very against-the-grain film. And very authentic and very unique. And about the Oscars. I think we’ll pass the test, but getting there is a gigantic achievement for the type of cinema this is. Sirat. I am a sculptor, I neither believe nor see myself with the Oscar. I don’t plan for that moment.
Q. But this coincides with a wave of artistic respiritualization, of revalorization of mysticism.
A. Perhaps because we are a generation in which the religious institution has not affected us. I didn’t go to those satanic schools, with child abuse. We make the difference between the religious gesture and the religious institution. The religious gesture is a fundamental human need, just like eating or breathing. My creative process is linked to my spiritual practice. If the world is not respiritualized, there will be no world. And if education is not esotericized, we will continue to be dominated by our ego. I greatly defend tradition because many traditions continue to bring solutions, answers, certainties to the hearts of people.
I am narcissistic. I like to be in the sauce, that is to say in the center of the roll. Or Hollywood. Obviously I have my balance, I want to return to Galicia, but I assume my responsibility and my pleasure as an artist.”
Q. Are you optimistic?
A. I have confidence in us, the people. And in life. Life will push us to a point where we will be forced to look within, to bring out the best in ourselves in order to survive.
Q. Did you lose your privacy during the trip Sirat, How hard are you fighting for this space?
A. Of course, but don’t believe it, I’m narcissistic. I like to be in the sauce, that is to say in the center of the roll. Or Hollywood. Obviously, I have my balance, I want to return to Galicia, but I assume my responsibility and my pleasure as an artist.
Q. And your future as a filmmaker?
A. First of all, I’m very grateful for everything that’s happening with the film. You know where I come from, from cinema underground. It was very difficult for me to direct my previous films, to produce myself. Now I am surrounded by the best possible team of producers and distributors. I participate in a thousand discussions with Spanish directors, with friends and, damn, I am aware of the privilege I have. How can I complain? How can I complain about being tired? I endured, I was tenacious in my way of thinking about cinema and in the trust I always had in the spectator. And in the end I’ve matured, it’s also the first time that I have the means to make a film, to be honest. And this is my fourth feature film.
There are people who define it as a fucking masterpiece, for others it seems like a farce and it all seems wonderful to me. We need art to be like that.”
Q. But I insist, do you already have a next project?
A. Yes, and it’s even riskier. It calls to me and at the same time I’m excited. I will take advantage of the opportunity, I am not afraid and I will not calculate. Others will stop me. I’m going to jump into the void again.
Q. What do they say to you in the street?
A. Well, I feel a lot of affection. The film transcends the concept of “I like it or I don’t like it”. Go further, Sirat It did its job, and I even listen to the bad reviews or people who are more uncomfortable, which I understand, which is completely normal. My intention was that we would die watching the film and at the same time go beyond moviegoers. We succeeded. There are people who define it as a fucking masterpiece, for others it seems like a farce and it all seems wonderful to me. We need art to be like that.
Q. You differentiate filmmakers from directors. Because?
A. Because my images are alive. I don’t use images to tell things, because then the images arrive dead. Films, for the most part, want to tell so much that they don’t tell or evoke anything, right? I protect the images. First, from myself. Because the filmmaker is the main enemy of his work. You have to know how to stop in time, you have to know how to trust the viewer, not to try to put so much rhetoric and so many intentions into a film. That’s why it’s so surprising that Sirat is in the race for the Oscars.
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