Samsara: I wish I had seen in theaters.
Samsara: A film I wish I had seen in theaters. Now streaming on Netflix.
At times the message feels a little heavy handed with its carefully crafted images and content. This is not the type of film I would recommend if you are looking to escape. It is similar to a Pink Floyd’s The Wall kind of “I dare you to watch this stoned out of your mind,” kind of way. There are several sequences that will make you tweak out of your mind even sober. There is no dialogue. This film makes you think. Which is why it is refreshing.
Chances are if you can’t make it through the first fifteen minutes, you will hate the film. Just fast forward to my favorite part I mentioned below and turn it off. Come back to it only after your curiosity has peaked.
I think it is overly touted as a Buddhist meditation. While the film references direct concepts in Buddism / Nirvana it is moreover a visual essay. A commentary on life through the eyes of our filmmakers.
If you are versed in the symbolism of Tibetan imagery you will enjoy the thoughtful circle of life. Most notably the Mandala sand painting in the beginning. The clever use of eyes, hands and arm positions. My art history friends will be thrilled. Everyone else has no clue what I am talking about.
What I love is the focus on your experience of the film and what happens when you put two images side by side without language. The juxtaposition is the dialogue. This is a beautiful, well paced film with interesting commentary on technology, farming and human interaction.
Best part to watch: The sequences in a Japanese robot factory that are making life sized sex dolls.Bet I got your attention now! I was beyond curious watching the cutting between the dolls and other mechanized processes. A not so subtle focus thought the film is eye contact. Eye contact with both humans and human made objects. Desire for connection. Widows to the soul. Each desire creates an action then a consequence. Desire, create, repeat. Not all desires are received well in this film. The mechanized meat process plants, sex industry, plastic surgery, bullet factories are all products of said circle.
It seems to come to a climax when you reach this part of the film, pun directly intended. The dolls sat with me the most. In our quest for fulfillment of desires to create the perfect body, we create an artificial one to fulfill the desires of men. The feminist in me was outraged, the filmmaker in me was curious and the woman in me was upset. The dolls are amazing. They are also disgusting. They do actually exist.
In any respect this is a must see film. I have watched it twice already and see something new each time. It got my wheels turning.
Watch and tell me what you think!
SAMSARA
(in Tibetan called ‘khor ba (pronounced kɔrwɔ [IPA] in many Tibetan dialects), meaning “continuous flow”), is the repeating cycle of birth, life and death(reincarnation) within Hinduism, Buddhism, Bön, Jainism, Taoism,[1] and Yârsân. In Sikhism this concept is slightly different and looks at one’s actions in the present and consequences in the present.