Featured Post

Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)

Director: Werner Herzog and Dmitry Vasyukov Genre: Documentary With "Happy People: A Year in the Taiga" Werner Herzog ...

Monday, July 8, 2013

Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)


Director: Werner Herzog and Dmitry Vasyukov
Genre: Documentary

With "Happy People: A Year in the Taiga" Werner Herzog (along with Dmitry Vasyukov and crew) once again ventures into an exotic, distant land; narrating traditional (at times prehistoric) way-of-living of the 300-odd people in the remote village of Bakhta in Siberian Taiga.

Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)

The film primarily focuses on village's main breadwinners: 'trappers' who quarry in the thick of below -50 degree winter in the wilderness stretching thousands of square kilometers, across the Yenisei River flowing alongside the village. The village is almost untouched by modernity and highly independent--snow-mobile and chainsaw few of the exceptions. Inaccessible most of the year, village can only be reached by a plane, or a boat in the short-lived, appropriate spring-summer season.  

Herzog/Vasyukov esthetically showcase the authentic 'happiness' a human-being relishes even in absence of technology and materialistic advancements. All you need is a sense of freedom and accomplishment that folks in Taiga mostly come upon by the constantly keeping themselves constructively engaged. Instead of  harming/modifying the nature, they have learned to live in harmony with it--assimilating their lifestyles around four different seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter.

Documenting an entire year in Taiga, the film is kind of divided in four chapters--the four seasons--that can only be best described/felt by seeing. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, below are some screen captures from the film covering the 4-season cycle and the specific chores set around them.   

Spring:

Happy People A Year in the Taiga
Passing on the conventional wisdom (Ski-making)
Happy People A Year in the Taiga
      Setting up the base structure of quarry-traps




Happy People A Year in the Taiga
Smoking the Ski for shape and sturdiness
Happy People A Year in the Taiga
Canoe for fishing made of local wood
Happy People A Year in the Taiga
Widening of canoe using fire

Happy People A Year in the Taiga
Testing the new canoe and green huskies in first waters
 Summer:
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)
Constructing huts for deep winter in the wilderness
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)
Thawing of the river, Yenisei




Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)
Inherent tendencies of the Orion kicking in!















Fall
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)
Nut gathering squirrel connotes: "Winter is coming"
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)
Night-fisherman: fish is attracted to the fire-light


                   
                         

Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)
Storing supplies nearby winter hut, away from Bear's reach
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)
Bear hibernating but rats still a threat


Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)
Wading upstream: Transporting essentials to the hut

 Winter:

Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)
Checking the traps for quarry
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)
Earning his keep, smells prey!

Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)
After a hard day's work returning back to a roof that might cave-in under snow
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)
Meanwhile, in the village: Fishing Holes
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)
Returning home for New Year/Christmas















Trappers visit family during festivities, notice the laika running behind the snowmobile--he runs all along the 150 frozen kilometers of the river! After a short stay with family (till Jan 6, Christmas) trapper retreats to his wilderness for a couple more months--to his hut (that is naturally insulated using earth and dry moss) with his best friend.

Thanks to Herzog, this documentary is a chance to somewhat live a dream lifestyle lot of us crave for.

8.5/10
Comments
6 Comments
Facebook Comments by Blogger Widgets

6 comments:

  1. IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1683876/

    ReplyDelete
  2. You can see the original movie (4 hours) in English, made by Vasyukov. Just write "Happy people" on Youtube.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! Found the 4-part movie (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter). Each at 50+ minutes! This is gold :)

      Delete
  3. All four parts on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbhPIK-oBvA

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Joshi but there is a big mistake in this documentary.That running dog is not a husky,is a siberian laika,siberian peoples hunting dog in this area.The laika can find now as well in Europe but originaly is from Siberia.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for reading through! You are absolutely right. The dog is a Laika. In fact, the original Vasyukov's documentary mentions the dog as a Laika.

    ReplyDelete

Find us on Google+