THE MUSEO’S CINEMA HOSTS THE FILM SERIES LANDSCAPE TRANCE, A RETROSPECTIVE ON THE WORK OF OLIVER LAXE

From 5 to 28 February, Oliver Laxe’s entire filmography will be screened in a series which converses with the installation produced by the Sirāt director and displayed in the Museo. The programme includes the four feature-length films Laxe has made to date and his short films, as well as a four-session carte blanche programme, in which he selects works that chime with his films and creative concerns.  .

The film series gets under way on 5 February 2026 with the screening of the film Sirāt (2025), the winner of numerous awards at international film festivals and nominated for two Oscars, for Best Sound and Best International Feature Film, at the 2026 Academy Awards.   

In addition to the film-maker’s three other feature films, Todos vós sodes capitáns (You All Are Captains) (2010), Mimosas (2016) and O que arde (Fire Will Come) (2019), the programme will screen his short films Y las chimeneas decidieron escapar (And the Chimneys Decided to Escape, 2006), Suena la trompeta, ahora veo otra cara (As the Trumpet Sounds I See Another Face, 2007) and París #1 (2007).

Oliver Laxe’s film-making possesses one of contemporary film’s most unique gazes, his filmography characterised by profound spirituality, a time of contemplation and a close connection to nature. Set in remote, timeless landscapes, his films address universal themes such as redemption and the meaning of existence by virtue of stories influenced by genre film-making and with protagonists largely played by amateur actors. In essence, film-making as a meditative labour of love which puts forward ethics and a sensorial experience to re-enchant the world.    

For the carte blanche session Laxe will select four films which delineate a path through his main filmic obsessions: Sergei Dvortsevoy’s Highway (1999), which crosses the plains of Kazakhstan via a small travelling circus; Artavazd Peleshyan’s film The Seasons (1975), an ode to the passing of time through landscape; Trás-os-Montes (1976), an ethnographic work of fiction, made by Antònio Reis and Margarida Cordeiro, spotlighting a Portuguese farming community and their rituals and purity of life; and Kaneto Shindo’s The Naked Island, which shows a family of four’s daily struggle in a natural paradise. 

The series is organised in parallel to HU/هُوَ. Dance as if no one were watching you, an installation conceived specifically for the Museo Reina Sofía’s Espacio 1 and on display until 20 April 2026. 

The full programme of Landscape Trance. The Films of Oliver Laxe is available on the Museo Reina Sofía website.