Baraka

Baraka is a film that gazes with such awe at the mystery of life on earth that it seems almost childlike and yet does it in a way so purely cinematic that it can only come from the hands of a wizened master. It looks at us humans as if through a telescope and yet knows us so well, it’s scary. Human beings and their complicated relationship with the planet and what might be waiting for us when we leave it. Maybe the point’s in there, our capacity as humans to wonder, to look up and imagine something greater than ourselves. It’s fitting then that Baraka begins with a solar eclipse and ends with rolling star fields, likely primitive man’s first hint of the eternal. This incredible journey, around the world only to arrive at what makes us fundamentally human is the gift of Baraka. It’s also, as this brilliant jewel of a film reminds, us, the enduring reward of the movies.