EXCLUSIVELY AT IFI

Two decades before Samsara, director-cameraman Ron Fricke made a previous global odyssey with this equally spectacular offering, whose title comes from a Sufi word meaning ‘the essence of life from which the evolutionary process unfolds’.

All human life is indeed here, for good or ill, as Fricke patiently records rush-hour at Grand Central Station, the temples of Angkor Wat, factory production lines, Amazonian and Masai tribespeople, and the changing skies over Utah…

It’s a film which takes us to places many of us will never visit, sending the mind spinning with its extremes of contrast, and ravishing the eye with images of you-are-there richness of detail – achieved by filming in the 65mm Todd-AO film format, since transferred to a high-res digital print with painstaking accuracy.

Esteemed U.S. film critic Roger Ebert once suggested that were we to send just one feature film into space to depict life on earth for some alien intelligence, Baraka would be his choice. See it and understand why. (Notes by Trevor Johnston.)

Please note that the 18.30 screenings on October 20th and 21st will be shown on 70mm and will be priced at €12 (€10 concessions).