The cycle of death and rebirth – creation and transformation

Samsara is a 2011 American non-narrative documentary film of international imagery directed by Ron Fricke and produced by Mark Magidson, who also collaborated on Baraka (1992), a film of a similar vein, and Chronos (1985).

Samsara explores the wonders of our world from the mundane to the miraculous, looking into the unfathomable reaches of humanity’s spirituality and the human experience. Neither a traditional documentary nor a travelogue, Samsara takes the form of a nonverbal, guided meditation.

Saṃsāra or Sansar is a Sanskrit word that means “wandering” or “world”, with the connotation of cyclic, circuitous change. It is also the concept of rebirth and “cyclicality of all life, matter, existence”, a fundamental belief of most Indian religions.

Saṃsāra is sometimes referred to with terms or phrases such as transmigration, karmic cycle, reincarnation, and “cycle of aimless drifting, wandering or mundane existence”. In short, it is the cycle of death and rebirth.