Baraka Blog Essay

       The film Baraka, is a good example of how everything connect in the world. The title means blessing or essence of life. The whole movie shows the healing effects that planet and how everything is linked together. In the busy life of New York, the film producers show a time lapse of a subway station. The subway was crowded and it constantly stayed that way as people tried to get to work, to shops, to places around New York. This scene is also shown in Tokyo. The subway station there is just as busy as the one in New York, in just an ordinary day, so many people go through this ciaos each day. Later on, there is a short filming of a monkey in the Himalayas relaxing or meditating in a hot springs. In all this ciaos, there comes this beauty. Through all the hectic things things in this world, there is always some place calm to relax and be all. When your in the ciaos, your mind is everywhere. But when you find that one quiet place, you can come together.



The music throughout the film is very intense, yet calming. It brings a special feel to each of the scenes. During one of the scenes (the one shown below), a sacred ritual is taking place. The leader (shown in the picture) is leading the other men in a chant. They are sitting a semi circle around a stone statue on an old temple ground. All of the men are constantly moving to the right or left chanting what the leader tells them to. At one point, they split in two and face each other and they look as they are blessing the other side with their chants. As the switch off back and forth, the ones being blessed lay down as to welcome the power of the blessing. Each other rituals shown, have a calming glow to them. Frequently, there is a time lapse of the clouds as they movie through out the day. This also, brings everything together was a way to show that the world itself can be very calm.



Finally, the picture below shows a blind man opening his yes for the first time. This is not the first time I have seen this video clip. He starts with his hands in front of his face, as like to hide something. He slowly moves his hands away and his eyes are shown. Again, the beauty comes back to play. For people who are blind, they never have to care what people think of them. They cannot see them selves so they do not have to worry about their appearance. They also, don't judge people for their looks. They have a gift. Even though it is traded with their sights, they get to see this beauty that most people look away from. They get to see a person's true potential by their personality. The whole world is blinded and does not wish to see someone's true potential. The film Baraka, shows how people throughout the world can see another person's potential without judgement.