Baraka review

Human life and and the natural world come together in this beautiful documentary re-release

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A sleepy monkey nodding off segues into a solar eclipse – no, this isn’t 2001: A Space Odyssey the remake, although it has similar pace and scope. Instead, Ron Fricke’s 1992 documentary is a gorgeous travelogue shot in 24 exotic countries across 14 months on 77mm film stock, the idea being to map the interconnectivity between man and planet.

In practice, this means stunning landscapes, scurrying cityscapes and naked people praying.

Depending on your tolerance for the aforementioned it’s either an awesome vision of the world in all its time-lapsed wonder or visual whale music.

Freelance Writer

Matt Glasby is a freelance film and TV journalist. You can find his work on Total Film - in print and online - as well as at publications like the Radio Times, Channel 4, DVD REview, Flicks, GQ, Hotdog, Little White Lies, and SFX, among others. He is also the author of several novels, including The Book of Horror: The Anatomy of Fear in Film and Britpop Cinema: From Trainspotting To This Is England.