Baraka

A documentary with no narrator, no dialogue and no plot. It was shot in twenty-four countries on six continents over fourteen months. The images move between worship, nature, production and city life: a temple in Japan, a mine in Brazil, a tribe in Kenya, burning oil wells in Kuwait, a production line in a chicken farm, the circling of the Kaaba in Mecca. The connection is not made in words; it is made by editing and music. The idea is plain: the same motion repeats in an act of worship and in a factory. The director Ron Fricke is also the cinematographer, and had been behind the camera on the similarly shaped Koyaanisqatsi. The technical side is part of the film's identity. Baraka was shot in the 70mm Todd-AO format and is cited as the last film photographed in it. For the 2008 restoration the original negative was scanned at 8K resolution; more than a hundred and fifty thousand frames were scanned and the work took weeks. It was the first film scanned at 8K. One of the principal works of its kind for anyone who likes visual cinema and wordless storytelling. For a viewer expecting guidance, the film explains nothing; the meaning comes entirely from the connections the viewer makes.