The Utah Film Circuit-Moab will present a free screening of the visually stunning film “Samsara” on Thursday, Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. at Star Hall, 125 E. Center St.

Samsara – a Sanskrit word meaning “the ever turning wheel of life,” serves as the point of departure for the filmmakers as they search for “the elusive current of interconnection that runs through our lives,” according to information from the Utah Film Circuit. The screening, part of a monthly series in Moab, is made possible through a collaboration between the Utah Film Circuit and the Grand County Public Library.

Filmed over a period of almost five years and in 25 countries, “Samsara” transports explores sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial sites, and natural wonders. The film includes no dialogue. Rather, director Ron Fricke weaves images and music to “illuminate the links between humanity and the rest of nature, showing how [the human] life cycle mirrors the rhythm of the planet,” according to information from the film’s website. “By dispensing with dialogue and descriptive text, “Samsara” subverts our expectations of a traditional documentary, instead encouraging our own inner interpretations inspired by images and music that infuses the ancient with the modern.”

In “Samsara,” Fricke and producer Mark Magidson expand on the themes they developed in the films “Baraka” (1992) and “Chronos” (1985), to explore the “wonders of the world from the mundane to the miraculous,” and examine “the unfathomable reaches of man’s spirituality and the human experience,” according to the website.

The film, which is described by the filmmakers as “neither a traditional documentary nor a travelogue, was photographed entirely in 70mm film and features standard frame rates and the use of a motion control time-lapse camera that “allows perspective shifts to reveal extraordinary views of ordinary scenes,” according to the film’s website.

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