They gathered research from people's works and photo books as well as the Internet and YouTube, resources not available at the time of planning Baraka.

Unlike Baraka, Samsara was edited without music, and the composers worked on numerous sequences as separate pieces, before connecting.

Some locations include: Angola, Brazil, China, Denmark, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Israel and the West Bank,[a] Mali, Myanmar, Namibia, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and United States.

[8] Angola Egypt Ethiopia Ghana Mali Namibia China Hong Kong India Indonesia Israel and the West Bank Japan Jordan Myanmar Philippines Saudi Arabia South Korea Thailand Turkey United Arab Emirates Denmark France Italy Brazil United States Fricke and Magidson emphasized avoiding a particular political view in assembling the film.

"[3] Nicolas Rapold of The New York Times wrote that Samsara's lack of a specific message is "a departure from similarly expansive, globally conscious nonfiction films in vogue now, like the critically acclaimed work of Michael Glawogger ('Workingman's Death,' which depicts the same sulfur mines as 'Samsara') and Nikolaus Geyrhalter ('Abendland') that also serve as probing sociological critique.

It reports the critics' consensus that "it's a tad heavy-handed in its message, but Samsara's overwhelmingly beautiful visuals more than compensate for any narrative flaws.

Turan concluded, "Some of the connections made are too obvious, like following images of ammunition with a portrait of a severely wounded veteran, while others are completely elusive.

"[14] In the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert awarded Samsara a full four stars, writing that it provided "an uplifting experience" through its use "of powerful images, most magnificent, some shocking, all photographed with great care in the highest possible HD resolution."

[15][16] Katie Walsh, writing for indieWire's The Playlist, applauded Samsara's "technical achievements" and noted that the film used the "intellectual montage" technique.

She said of the film's entirety, "While one can discuss the technical prowess of these shocking and beautiful images, it doesn't do justice to the spiritual cinematic power of this work.