By Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times

The second time I saw the road thriller “Sirāt,” I couldn’t wait to hear the audience moan. Months earlier, I’d stumbled dazed out of its Cannes premiere already excited to see it again with a crowd and when I finally did, those moans came earlier, a hint that some folks had been tipped off to steel themselves. That’s all I’ll give away about the sharp turns in Spain’s punkish, prankish and strangely existential Oscar submission (which already won Cannes’ Jury Prize). Seeing it blank would be best, but it’s my job to poke you to go.

“Sirāt” is by the filmmaker Oliver Laxe , an intense bohemian who would blend in at the rave in Morocco where his hypnotic film begins. In this stretch of dramatic desert flanked by the Atlas Mountains, men assemble stack

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