Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.
Powaqqatsi is Godfrey Reggio's visually hypnotic second entry in the Qatsi trilogy, focusing on the Global South's struggle under encroaching industrialization. As a non-narrative, dialogue-free poetic documentary, acting is essentially irrelevant — the film relies entirely on its images and Philip Glass's iconic score. The cinematography is genuinely exceptional, with slow-motion footage of laborers, markets, and landscapes creating a deeply meditative and painterly quality. Its novelty remains high: the Qatsi films occupy a singular space in cinema, and Powaqqatsi's specific focus on the developing world's human cost gives it a distinct identity even within that series. The ending, while evocative, lacks the cumulative thunderclap of Koyaanisqatsi. The 'plot' in a conventional sense is absent by design, earning a low score there.