Ron Fricke, the cinematographer behind Koyaanisqatsi, directs this non-narrative film shot across roughly two dozen countries with no dialogue and no voiceover. The camera moves from the temples of Angkor Wat to the barracks of Auschwitz, from Kuwaiti oil fires to Japanese macaques soaking in hot springs, from whirling dervishes in Turkey to assembly lines in Chinese factories. Time-lapse photography turns city traffic into rivers of light and clouds into rushing weather systems, while long static shots hold on human faces, ritual dances, and industrial machinery until they start to rhyme with each other. There is no argument spoken aloud; the editing does the work, cutting between a Balinese fire ceremony and a Manhattan subway platform as if they belong to the same sentence. Music by Michael Stearns and traditional recordings from the filmed locations carry scenes that have no other sound. The result is a survey of how people pray, work, kill, and build, left for the viewer to assemble into meaning.