Baraka (1993)
Front Cover Actor Back Cover
Movie Details
Genre Documentary
Director Ron Fricke; Jean-Paul Colleyn; Victoria Ebin
Studio MPI
Language English
Audience Rating NR
Running Time 1 hr 36 mins
Country Senegal
Color Color
IMDb Rating 8.6
Plot
Named after a Sufi word that translates roughly as "breath of life" or "blessing," Baraka is Ron Fricke 's impressive follow-up to Godfrey Reggio 's non-verbal documentary film Koyaanisqatsi . Fricke was cinematographer and collaborator on Reggio's film, and for Baraka he struck out on his own to polish and expand the photographic techniques used on Koyaanisqatsi . The result is a tour-de-force in 70mm: a cinematic "guided meditation" (Fricke's own description) shot in 24 countries on six continents over a 14-month period that unites religious ritual, the phenomena of nature, and man's own destructive powers into a web of moving images. Fricke's camera ranges, in meditative slow motion or bewildering time-lapse, over the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the Ryoan-Ji temple in Kyoto, Lake Natron in Tanzania, burning oil fields in Kuwait, the smoldering precipice of an active volcano, a busy subway terminal, tribal celebrations of the Masai in Kenya, chanting monks in the Dip Tse Chok Ling monastery...and on and on, through locales across the globe. To execute the film's time-lapse sequences, Fricke had a special camera built that combined time-lapse photography with perfectly controlled movements of the camera. In one evening sequence a desert sky turns black, and the stars roll by, as the camera moves slowly forward under the trees. The feeling is like that of viewing the universe through a powerful telescope: that we are indeed on a tiny orb hurtling through a star-filled void. The film is complemented by the hybrid world-music of Michael Stearns . -- Anthony Reed
Personal Details
Seen It Yes
Index 62
Collection Status In Collection
Quantity 1
Links IMDB
DVD Empire
Amazon US
Product Details
Format DVD
Region Region 1
Screen Ratio Widescreen 1.85:1 Color
Standard 1.33:1 Color
Layers Single side, Single layer
UPC 111111111111
Chapters 22
Release Date 2002
Packaging Keep Case
Audio Tracks ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1
Nr of Disks/Tapes 1
Extra Features
Behind-The-Scenes Featurette

Interactive Menus
Chapter Searches