Babel

Director Alejandro González Iñarritu enlists the beautiful work of Ryuichi Sakamoto to bring his global epic to its melancholic and moving conclusion.

Four interconnected stories set across Morocco, USA, Mexico and Japan are set into motion when an American woman (Cate Blanchett) on holiday in Morocco with her husband (Brad Pitt), is shot and seriously wounded while travelling on a bus. The rifle is owned by a Moroccan goatherder, and the fateful shot is fired carelessly by his teenage sons. Back in the US, a Mexican maid stuck with looking after the couple’s children decides to take the kids to her son’s wedding without their father’s consent. While in Japan a deaf and non-verbal teenage girl explores her sexuality as she grapples with loss.

Completing his death trilogy following Amores Perros (2000) and 21 Grams (2003) director Alejandro González Iñarritu (who won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival for the film) has fashioned a compelling non-linear tapestry about interconnectedness and miscommunication.

The propulsive score by Gustavo Santaolalla (which won the Oscar for Best Original Score) gels these narratives together, powerfully weaving a human tapestry across these disparate continents. Ryuichi Sakamoto’s warm and haunting closing track Bibo No Aozora (Beauty of a Blue Sky) gained widespread acclaim when it was first released and found new fans when Iñarritu requested the song for the soundtrack.