The base-level read is a spiritual-versus-secular one, of course, but the doc blurs the line to suggest there’s not as drastic a difference between the two ideologies, or even the two people, than we might think. It’s an interesting contrast that Baraka posits: Mohamed is out searching for an unknown, whereas Abderrahmane wants to clarify said unknown.

Abderrahmane, on the other hand, is fascinated in the atomic make-up of these particles, and what information they might hold about the formation of the universe. Mohamed believes them to be sacred objects that fell to earth that could pull in a pretty penny, and joins a group of amateur rock foragers to go search them out. The main juxtaposition is between Mohamed, a nomadic farmer, and Abderrahmane, a university professor, and their shared fascination with the meteorites that landed in the Moroccan desert. The doc is slow and sparse, showcasing its subjects “talking” almost exclusively through an inner monologue that’s superimposed on the visuals via whisper. Adnane Baraka’s Fragments from Heaven falls somewhere in the middle in that its artistry never quite renders its message as a revelatory one but a wholly engrossing one nonetheless, and with a unique metaphysical perspective. Sometimes it works to astounding results other times, not so much. These films’ basic presentations of their facts that allegedly document some iteration of “real life” are skewed in a way that subverts our assumptions on how reality should be presented in the first place. Granted, that’s only based on two years’ worth of attendance (virtually, mind you, and from a distance) but the docs that come out of this fest have shown a most creative sense of subjectivity beyond just that of the journalistic variety. I’m confident in proclaiming Locarno to be the go-to festival when it comes to avant-garde documentaries. Fragments from Heaven ( 2022) Film Review from the 75th Annual Locarno Film Festival , a documentary written and directed by Adnane Baraka.

Fragments movie