Holiday brochure and secret agent report: documentary about lavish splendor and mysterious rites on Bali.

Picture gallery

After his brilliant The Oil Crash, Basil Gelpke went to Bali to make a TV documentary. What a contrast! While oil is one of the cornerstones of Western civilization, the Balinese value system is based on the immaterial. Through a photo book of journalist Gill Marais, whom he met on Bali, he was introduced to the island's secret rites. The result is a documentary that includes unique scenes of this archaic world – set in the photogenic backdrop of its tourist attractions.

But despite in-depth explanations by knowledgeable monks, this anachronistic view of the world remains foreign in our time of globalism and technology.