Prepare yourself for an unparalleled sensory experience. Samsara reunites director Ron Fricke and producer Mark Magidson, whose award-winning films Baraka and Chronos were acclaimed for combining visual and musical artistry. 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.

In Africa's ancient south west corner, two extraordinary deserts sit side by side. Water is in short supply, yet these deserts are somehow full of life because the creatures that live here have turned the rules of survival on their head. This film celebrates nature's ingenuity, no matter how tough it gets. In the Kalahari scrublands, clever meerkats are outsmarted by a wily bird, solitary and belligerent black rhinos get together to party and giant insects stalk huge flocks of birds. Rain almost never falls in the Namib - instead it must make do with vaporous, vanishing fog. The creatures in this, the world's oldest desert, have gone to the extremes, as spiders wheel to escape and a desert giraffe fights to defend his scant resources in the greatest giraffe battle ever filmed.

Around 30% of the land's surface is desert, the most varied of our ecosystems despite the lack of rain. Unravel the secrets of desert survival and experience the ephemeral nature of this dynamic environment. Watch Saharan sandstorms nearly a mile high and desert rivers that run for a single day. In the Gobi Desert, rare Bactrian camels get moisture from the snow. In the Atacama, guanacos survive by licking dew off cactus spines. In the USA, the brief blooming of Death Valley triggers a plague of locusts 65km wide and 160km long. A unique aerial voyage over the Namibian desert reveals elephants on a long trek for food and desert lions searching for wandering oryx.

The Namib Desert is one of the oldest deserts and also one of the most diverse. With 50ºC (120ºF) temperatures and half a millimetre of rainfall annually, we see how this is possible. Half the size of Oklahoma, from its Skeleton Coast through the sea of sand to the haze of distant mountains this apparently forbidding desert hides secret water sources.

The last episode of the series showcases Africa, home to the greatest wildlife gatherings on earth and vast ecosystems. It delves into the lives of intelligent chimpanzees using tools in Ivory Coast, and the diverse cichlid fish in the Great Rift Valley's lakes. The film also explores the survival strategies of animals in the Namib Desert, including the brown hyena and the aardvark.
But even in this land of plenty, wildlife faces huge challenges. Crucially, it is addressed the impact of climate change and human activities, highlighting the plight of endangered species like the northern white rhinoceros and the decreasing populations of elephants and cheetahs due to poaching. However, it also offers hope, illustrating successful conservation efforts like the recovery of the mountain gorilla population in Virunga National Park.
The documentary is a vivid reminder of the richness of African wildlife and the urgent need for conservation efforts to preserve our planet's biodiversity.

The third episode takes viewers on a riveting journey to some of the world's most extreme and breathtaking deserts and grasslands, where nature puts on its most dramatic show. It begins in the arid landscapes of Central Africa's Guelta d'Archei and the Namib Desert in Southwest Africa, places where water is scarce, and survival is a daily battle. The focus then shifts to the remarkable adaptability of creatures like ostriches, who brave the scorching heat and predators to raise their young and a handful of leopards who learned to hunt from trees on the African plains.
In Australia, viewers witness the intricate courtship rituals of the spotted bowerbird, a species facing challenges due to climate change. The narrative then takes us to the vast Eurasian Steppe, home to the unique Saiga antelope, and to Brazil's Cerrado, a biodiverse grassland where the elusive maned wolf plays a crucial role in maintaining the ecosystem.
The episode highlights not only the resilience and beauty of these creatures but also the fragility of their habitats, emphasizing the urgent need for conservation efforts.