Samsara (2011)
Samsara is a 2011 documentary movie directed by Ron Fricke, with a running time of 1h 42m. It stars Ni Made Megahadi Pratiwi, Puti Sri Candra Dewi and Putu Dinda Pratika.
No words, no narration, no plot to hold onto. Ron Fricke spent close to five years across twenty-five countries, shooting on seventy-millimeter film, and cut it all into a wordless flow of images. A temple at dawn, a factory floor, a ruined city, a face in ceremonial paint, the whole earth seen from a distance that makes it strange. The film asks you to look, and to feel the rhymes between sacred ritual and industrial machine, between creation and decay. Beauty that carries no caption, offered up for you to sit with and make sense of.
Quick answers
What is Samsara about?
No words, no narration, no plot to hold onto. Ron Fricke spent close to five years across twenty-five countries, shooting on seventy-millimeter film, and cut it all into a wordless flow of images. A temple at dawn, a factory floor, a ruined city, a face in ceremonial paint, the whole earth seen from a distance that makes it strange. The film asks you to look, and to feel the rhymes between sacred ritual and industrial machine, between creation and decay. Beauty that carries no caption, offered up for you to sit with and make sense of.
When was Samsara released?
Samsara was released on 16 September 2011.
How long is Samsara?
Samsara runs 1h 42m.
Who made Samsara?
Samsara was directed by Ron Fricke.
Where can I watch Samsara?
Samsara is available on Kanopy, Plex, Pluto TV, Tubi TV, Amazon Video and Apple TV Store.
Where to watch Samsara
Watch free: Kanopy
Watch free with ads: Plex, Pluto TV, Tubi TV
Rent: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store
Buy: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store
Official site
Cast
- Ni Made Megahadi Pratiwi as Dancer: Valinese Tari Legong Dancers, Indonesia
- Puti Sri Candra Dewi as Dancer: Valinese Tari Legong Dancers, Indonesia
- Putu Dinda Pratika as Dancer: Valinese Tari Legong Dancers, Indonesia
- Marcos Luna as Tattoo Daddy: USA
- Hiroshi Ishiguro as Professor and Robot Clone: Japan
- Olivier De Sagazan as Man At Desk: France
- Ladyboys of Cascade Bar as Dancers: Thailand
- Kikumaru as Geisha: Japan
- Crisanto Neire as Lead Singer: Cebu Provincial Detenton Center, Philippines
- Robert Henline as US Army Veteran: USA
- Tai Lihua as Lead Dancer: 1000 Habds Goddess Dance, China
- Collin Alfredo St. Dic as Self - Cyclist
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A few thoughts on Samsara
This belongs to the wordless documentary tradition, the same lineage as Koyaanisqatsi and Baraka, where the camera does the arguing and you supply the meaning. Come for the imagery and the seventy-millimeter clarity, not for a story. Best watched large, loud, and without distraction, letting the edits pull connections you would never reach in words.
Music documentaries about the artists behind the sound
Samsara is a wordless flow of images with no narration, but if you want nonfiction with a soundtrack and a subject, these turn the camera on musicians. Portraits of pop icons and bands, tracing the work, the toll and the performances behind the songs.
Documentaries that hold a mirror to modern society
Samsara rhymes sacred ritual against the industrial machine, watching how people live now without saying a word. These documentaries chase the same curiosity through talk and testimony instead, digging into corners of contemporary culture and the appetites, industries and taboos that shape it.
Nonfiction films that confront violence and its aftermath
Behind Samsara's beauty runs a thread of decay and consequence, creation set against ruin. These documentaries look hard at the darker end of that, real cases of violence and the questions they leave behind, reported with the plain nerve of nonfiction rather than poetry.