Baraka - A Beautiful World Defined Without Words

On my last class of Media Appreciation, I was shown an amazing movie entitled "Baraka". What amazes me is that, this movie involves no talking at all, but a full movie of only motion and sounds. Baraka shows how the world evolves from time to time. It's a movie with a vast viewing angle.

Baraka basically means, "blessing". Watching this movie, I can actually identify what is happening. How the world begins from scratch. Humans did not have the technology that they have today. We begin everything from a very basic stage. The movie shows how the world begins, how civilisation slowly develops, modernisation happens, war outbreaks, and death. It's also symbolic to a life cycle: We were born pure and innocent. We also grow up learning how to live. At a certain point of time, we are finally being able to stand on our own and make own decisions, and at times we also made mistakes that has caused us a precious loss. Finally, the inevitable stage of life, which is death. When we die, only memories of us will remain in the hearts of those who remember us. Baraka also shows how people from different religions and beliefs perform various prayers and rituals to seek blessings from God. The unique thing about it is that, no matter in what era we live in, the prayers and rituals still remain and practised by the believers. How they perform their rituals and prayers may differ from one another but their motives are the same; to seek God's blessings. This shows that, we are all the same and there is no reason for us to discriminate one another at all. Every religion teaches us good things, and no religion will ever teach its believers terrorism. 

The Beauty of Semiotics

By definition, semiotics are the "science" of signs. To make things clearer, it is how a single sign can bring a lot of meanings. For example, we take a look at this:

What does this mean to you? Is it just a leaf? It's more than just a leaf. It's a symbol of living. It's a symbol of healthy environment. It's a symbol of the beauty of mother nature. It's a symbol of feeling refreshed. 

As you can see, there are many ways to interpret to a single picture. Semiotics play a big role in delivering messages, especially through advertisements and movies. Signs in movies we see can give us a lot of different impressions. Sometimes, it also tells us the story itself. Semiotics are also often used by movie producers to deliver a certain implicit message. Some people might not notice them when they are watching a movie, but some people can. Thus,  there will be people debating about what the semiotic signs mean, because they have different opinions based on their observation.