Review of Baraka

The 1992 film Baraka, directed by Ron Fricke, is a documentary that uses no narration and includes footage from two dozen countries to show a swath of human experience and living. The use of striking images and a “world music” soundtrack create a film that is artfully rendered and shows a removed but sympathetic portrait of how people are unique and also uniquely the same.

The documentary balances natural images and people to create a rich sense of the world and space that people occupy. Asian temples and Eastern European temples are set among mountains and in cities. Strange rituals, such as a group of men dancing and chattering in unison is contrasted against the image of an active volcano. A group of African boys and girls singing and chanting in robes and necklaces is a strikingly different image from the men chanting around their Buddha, but the essence of what they were doing carried through, as if we all know what dancing and singing is, something that all people do regardless of culture.

An early realization of watching this film is how much material stuff Americans have. Obviously the film isn’t going to focus on the materialistic as it searches for the experiential, but the lack of material wealth and possession in many of the cultures and groups where the documentary was filmed had very little material possession. And yet, their living experience seemed very rich. They danced elaborately and celebrated and took part in rituals. They smiled and cried and seemed to have the same if not more sense of community and contentment than most Americans do.

Another thing the documentary makes me realize is how beautiful Earth is. I know about places like Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon, and I’ve even heard of some of the other natural wonders, such as the Victoria Falls which are shown in the film, but the director and photographer capture everything in such detail. The use of slow motion feels like the filmmaker is telling me and all viewers to slow down and look at the details. I forget how much intricacy there is in things when I look at them carefully and don’t think about the next thing I have or want to do.

I also realized how little I know of other cultures. I understand things hypothetically—I know the indigenous people, Australian Aboriginals, and I can probably pick them out of a photograph—but I don’t know what a day in their life is like when it comes to the details. This film made me appreciate the uniqueness of all experience. And I also saw a lot of common humanity. Some of the images were bizarre—the people who looked like they were from South America don’t look like people I know—but they held hands, they danced, the laughed, and they were both strange and very human.

Everyone should watch this film, as it is a wonderful snapshot of who we are as a species and how varied and rich our cultures are from an anthropological perspective, showing what we have in common and what we lack. The name of the film translates roughly as “blessing,” and the filmmakers are making a point that life on Earth, in whatever shape it takes for you, is a blessing, and it is also a blessing to be able to see such variety and wonder.