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.
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.
The related blog-post has some delightful screen captures from the film covering the 4-season cycle and the specific chores set around them. Wish I could post them here, somehow! Posting sans the pictures, anyhow.
Spring:
-Passing on the conventional wisdom (Ski-making) -Setting up the base structure of quarry-traps -Smoking the Ski for shape and sturdiness -Canoe for fishing made of local wood -Widening of canoe using fire -Testing the new canoe and green huskies in first waters
Summer: -Constructing huts for deep winter in the wilderness -Thawing of the river, Yenisei -Inherent tendencies of the Orion kicking in!
Fall:
-Nut gathering squirrel connotes: "Winter is coming" -Night-fisherman: fish is attracted to the fire-light -Storing supplies nearby winter hut, away from Bear's reach -Bear hibernating but rats still a threat -Wading upstream: Transporting essentials to the hut
Winter:
-Checking the traps for quarry Earning his keep, smells prey! -After a hard day's work returning back to a roof that might cave-in under snow -Meanwhile, in the village: Fishing Holes Returning home for New Year/Christmas
Trappers visit family during festivities, notice the husky running behind the snowmobile--he runs all the 150 frozen kilometers of the river! After a short stay with family (till Jan 6, Christmas) a trapper gets back to his wilderness for a couple more months--to his hut (that is naturally insulation using earth and dry moss) with his best friend.
Thanks to Herzog, this documentary is a chance to live a dream lifestyle lot of us crave for.
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.
The related blog-post has some delightful screen captures from the film covering the 4-season cycle and the specific chores set around them. Wish I could post them here, somehow! Posting sans the pictures, anyhow.
Spring:
-Passing on the conventional wisdom (Ski-making) -Setting up the base structure of quarry-traps -Smoking the Ski for shape and sturdiness -Canoe for fishing made of local wood -Widening of canoe using fire -Testing the new canoe and green huskies in first waters
Summer: -Constructing huts for deep winter in the wilderness -Thawing of the river, Yenisei -Inherent tendencies of the Orion kicking in!
Fall:
-Nut gathering squirrel connotes: "Winter is coming" -Night-fisherman: fish is attracted to the fire-light -Storing supplies nearby winter hut, away from Bear's reach -Bear hibernating but rats still a threat -Wading upstream: Transporting essentials to the hut
Winter:
-Checking the traps for quarry Earning his keep, smells prey! -After a hard day's work returning back to a roof that might cave-in under snow -Meanwhile, in the village: Fishing Holes Returning home for New Year/Christmas
Trappers visit family during festivities, notice the husky running behind the snowmobile--he runs all the 150 frozen kilometers of the river! After a short stay with family (till Jan 6, Christmas) a trapper gets back to his wilderness for a couple more months--to his hut (that is naturally insulation using earth and dry moss) with his best friend.
Thanks to Herzog, this documentary is a chance to live a dream lifestyle lot of us crave for.