Baraka

Baraka (1992) directed by Ron Fricke

Baraka is an ancient Sufi word, which can be translated as "a blessing, or as the breath, or essence of life from which the evolutionary process unfolds."

The movie was filmed at 152 locations of 24 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Nepal, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, and the United States. It contains no dialogue. Instead of a story or plot, the film uses themes to present new perspectives and evoke emotion purely through cinema. The film was the first in over twenty years to be photographed in the 70mm Todd-AO format.
Baraka seems at times like an updated version of Godfrey Reggio's 1983 film, Koyaanisqatsi. Using speeded-up images of hectic big city life with its homelessness and deprivation, interspersed with mountain vistas and forests, it depicts the mechanical nature of modern life as contrasted with the beauty of the natural world. This film allowed me to see things I never knew existed, and to glimpse patterns of interconnectedness and a sense of balance and proportion in the world of which I was barely aware. I was moved to simply look into people's faces and have them look back at me, allowing me to connect with the universality of the human spirit. Fricke has said that Baraka was intended to be "a journey of rediscovery that plunges into nature, into history, into the human spirit and finally into the realm of the infinite." Unique in its beauty, sensitivity, and perception, Baraka succeeded in moving me from hectic everyday awareness to a calmer and more spiritual space.