"Samsara" : More Than A Thousand Words

Twenty years after the release of "Baraka" director Ron Fricke and producer Mark Magidson return with a new chapter in their one of kind style of filmmaking. This time with "Samsara" a meditation on the human condition and the clash of modernity and tradition,as with "Baraka", this new film was also shot in beautiful and incomparable 70mm film. The visual quality is incredibly  hypnotizing and vivid, but the real power of the film is in the images themselves and the way they are juxtaposed to create meaning in a completely non-verbal film.

It is evident that many things have changed since the release of "Baraka" in 1992, the world is a different place, but watching "Samsara" the contrast is visually exposed. The main topic in the film is transformation and the conflict between the change and the static symbols of our past. For example, the film focuses on the plasticity of our world today, with images of Dubai's man-made islands and its indoor ski resort, showing us how far we have gone to alter and manipulate nature to create a fake sense of progress. This is enhanced by a sequence showing the way we mass produced our food, and how everything is mechanized and taken for granted.

The film opens with an Eastern dance in which the performers aren't allowed to blink, as if to force us to see what is being presented in front of us. Beautiful vistas of nature are followed by images of Los Angeles freeways and skyline at night that reflect the current state of the world's landscape. However, even the maze of roads and freeways and the restless coming and going of cars at night have a beauty of their own. The images capture such fast-forward chaos that keeps the audience in awe for most of the film. As perhaps one the great highlights of the film, there is a sequence in which a man literally transforms his face time and time again, at first disturbing and haunting but I believe it speaks to us about the way we live today. In the search for individualism we have gotten lost in the mass production of thoughts and predetermined aspirations.

 "Samsara" will stay in your mind for a long time after watching it. It is a stunning portrayal of humanity, a moving postcard of our world. Obviously it is, as any work of art, biased and completely manipulated by its creators, but given that,it can be seen that their view really explored many shades and contrasting experiences across the globe. If I could tell you what the film represents in one image, perhaps it would be a shot in which we see two Muslim women in traditional burkas standing in front of a sign showing male underwear models. The contrast between the values and ways of living of our past and how we navigate life today in this inorganic world. A must see for every inhabitant of the planet. Grade A+