ko.yaa.nis.katsi (from the Hopi language), n. 1. crazy life. 2. life in turmoil. 3. life disintegrating. 4. life out of balance. 5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.

Imagine a film with no characters, no lead actor, no dialogue, no plot and no narrative. Sound compelling, huh? No, probably not, but then Koyaanisqatsi is not most films. It's a classic, award-winning film of the 1980's, a frantic tirade against capitalism and exploitation of the worlds natural resources, and a plea for a return to the traditions of the native Americans who lived close to the land.

Koyaanisqatsi is a film of images set to music. Minus plot, characters or narrative, you are left to take in the images yourself and take what interpretations you like from them – it's a documentary, I suppose, but without a voiceover. The film was directed by Godfrey Reggio, and the whole thing is held together by the glorious, soaring music of Philip Glass.

Now before you think I'm being all art-house and poncy, let me assure you that before I saw Koyaanisqatsi, I knew nothing of modern classical music, and would have scoffed at the idea that I would like an arty experimental film. If there weren't a few decent twists in the plot, or Colin Firth looking smouldering, I didn't want to know.

However, I heard a snippet of the film's soundtrack, and was instantly hooked by the headlong, passionate music – frantic strings, the hypnotic chanting of a female choir and an impossibly deep male voice intoning the spine-chilling word 'Koyaanisqatsi'..which means in the Hopi (Native American) language, 'Life out of balance' or 'Crazy life'. I was hooked and wanted to see the film immediately.

The film opens with a pair of ambiguous images – an ancient cave painting which seems to show human figures, and then what appears to be an explosion with ice shattering all around it. I won't give any more away, as these images reappear at the end and give a kind of clarification to the whole film. After this, the film moves to images of the natural world – clouds pouring over mountain tops, amazing vistas of the desert and Grand Canyon, planes skimming low over lakes and forests, and that magical, chilling yet fascinating word repeated over and over, 'Koyaanisqatsi'.

The next section of the film deals with human industry, moving on from nature in its purest form to nature exploited by man – mining, factory work, human activity is reduced to scurrying ants. The image that haunts me the most is an amiable-looking air force pilot standing in front of his plane, his friendly demeanour at odds with the killing machine behind him.

From there the film moves to images of destruction – war, explosions, mushroom clouds, (this section is not for the faint-hearted) and a split-second image which always catches at my heart, a bandaged hand reaching up from a hospital bed to clutch desperately at another's hand – a representation, to me, of humanity's desire for self-preservation at all costs, and need to take comfort from others.

Then we travel to a scene of desolation – miserable streets in American inner cities, litter blowing past run-down tenements, and eventually the camera is drawn towards a derelict housing estate, Pruit Igoe in St Louis. Suddenly, we see the flats shudder, and collapse in slow motion – they are being demolished. When the housing developments of the 60s are demolished in the UK, it is usually accompanied by celebration on the part of the inhabitants who are being rehomed somewhere much nicer, but there is none of that sense of satisfaction here, just an underlying feeling that the demolition of this housing symbolises the failure of urban America to provide its citizens with a bearable, if not pleasant and comfortable, living environment.

Then the films most striking, and longest, passage begins – the Grid. The action remains in the city. We see clouds again, not drifting across canyons, but reflected in the mirrored windows of New York skyscrapers.

The music picks up speed, and suddenly we are catapulted into the craziness of the urban jungle. These are the images which Koyaanisqatsi is most famous for – sped up traffic changing lanes on the freeways of Los Angeles, humans flowing over zebra crossings, across the concourse and up the escalators at Grand Central Station. Night falls, and we see the highway from inside a car, the lights of other cars zooming past become red and orange streaks; the moon rises behind a skyscraper, neon lights flicker on, dancers strike a pose in nightclubs with flashing squares on the floor – the music crescendos into a whirling, spinning frenzy, conveying a sense of panic and chaos, reflecting the beauty and terror of the city – and suddenly there is silence.

The camera continues to gaze down on a landscape of tower blocks and streets, but now with no sound. Your ears and eyes are aching from the visual and aural experience - you don't want it to end, and yet the silence after so much noise and disorder is comforting and peaceful.

We return in the final sequence, Prophecies, to the image from the beginning of the film, an explosion shattering ice particles. As the camera pulls out, you realise what it is you’ve been looking at (I won't give it away), and voices begin to chant in an unintelligible language – the prophecies of the Hopi Native American people. The film builds up to a climax which is distressing, but gives a sense of 'closure' after seeing so many conflicting images – you can't imagine how a diverse film with no narrative or plot could come to a satisfying ending, but the final images are so striking and dramatic that they round off and complete everything that has gone before.

At the end of the film, a translation of the Hopi prophecies come up on the screen:
"If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster."
"Near the Day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky."
"A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky which could burn the land and boil the oceans."

If you grew up listening to pop music or watching TV in the 80’s and 90’s, much of Koyaanisqatsi will be strangely familiar – how often have you seen sped-up traffic in pop videos? And people dancing in nightclubs with square lights on the floor? (Well, that was in Saturday Night Fever, too, wasn't it?) Basically, Koyaanisqatsi has been ripped off/homaged by countless videos and adverts, Madonna's Ray of Light is one of the worst offenders. While sped-up film may be a cliché of pop culture now, the number of imitators does not detract from the power of Koyaanisqatsi – yes, it is a bit dated, and looking at all the people in their 80s clothes is very funny, but as a piece of cinema and art it is utterly unique.

It is also extremely depressing, as the worldview of the film is not exactly sweetness and light. If the Hopi prophecies are to be believed, humans destruction and exploitation of the natural environment will ultimately lead to our undoing. Well, we kind of already knew that, didn't we, but I can't read those prophecies without feeling an icy chill down my back, especially in the light of last years horrific events.

When I watched the TV on September 11th and saw hell opening up before my eyes, I thought 'Koyaanisqatsi' – even before September 11th, I always interpreted the phrase about 'cobwebs being spun back and forth in the sky' as being the vapour trails left by aeroplanes, or too-tall buildings rising up into the sky which may fall; a symbol, like the Tower of Babel, of mans over-ambition. The 'container of ashes' phrase seems to me to refer to nuclear holocaust.

I'm not doing a very good job of selling this film, am I – really, it should be a call to arms, a warning, not a depressing vision of the future – we are the generation who has seen the chaos and destruction of 'life disintegrating' so maybe we are the ones who can make a fresh start, try to return to nature and stop exploiting and destroying our resources.

Is it enough, Koyaanisqatsi asks, that we all 'do our bit', we recycle, we buy organic, use public transport (yeah, right) but does it take more than that to change humanity's attitude to the environment? Can this huge journey begin with a small step? Are we, the great mass of humanity, as inconsequential as scurrying ants, unable to determine our own futures in the face of political and commercial interests beyond our reach?

Koyaanisqatsi may leave you full of questions and apprehensive about the future, but it will also leave you exhilarated and overwhelmed by such an impressive, phenomenal and imaginative piece of cinema. Philip Glass's music is quite simply stunning – the soundtrack is well worth buying in itself. You may not think it is your cup of tea, but then neither did I, and how wrong I was. It's one of those films you ought to see once in your life, because there really is nothing else like it.

A DVD box set of Koyaanisqatsi and its sequel, Powaqqatsi, was released in the US last year, available on Amazon.com for $22.49. We haven't managed to get it to work yet, due to all that pesky region business, so I can't tell you what special features there are on the DVD, or even what Powaqqatsi is like (I haven't seen it before). If you own the DVD and have managed to get it to work…I'd love to read your review!

A third film, Naqoyqatsi, was released in the US in October, by Miramax, but its anyone's guess if/when it will be shown over here.

There was a VHS of Koyaanisqatsi but it wasn't terribly good quality, and if you search for it on Amazon it comes up as 'out of print', but you can buy the soundtrack for £7.99. To see Koyaanisqatsi in the UK, look out for it at film clubs or art house cinemas – I saw it at the Curzon in Soho a few years ago – and it is being shown with a live orchestra and choir at the Barbican (London) as part of a Philip Glass season in January. I will be there, feeling quite out of place among all the classical music devotees, but I can't stay away...once you've been exposed to the magic of Koyaanisqatsi, life will never be quite the same again...

PS It gets 4 stars because it's not exactly an easy film to get hold of, so I can't recommend it completely - not till they bring out a European DVD. But if you are intrigued, it's well worth searching out a copy. Please ignore ratings for story/character as they are irrelevant, but I had to fill them out.

UPDATE Dec 02 - We finally got the DVD to work at the weekend, hurrah! I can confirm that the picture/sound quality is far superior to the VHS, and the special features are original trailers for all 3 films and an interesting documentary outlining how Glass and Reggio collaborate and develop their ideas.

So I've now watched Powaqqatsi, and my initial reaction was that it was not nearly as good as its predecessor, but still a beautiful film with some superb music - I just found it a bit more repetitive. And as for Naqoyqatsi, I've only seen a trailer so far so the jury's out on that one. Watch this space!