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Happy People: A Year in the Taiga
2010 · Film · documentary · 94 min
Directed by Werner Herzog, Dmitry Vasyukov
In the center of the story is the life of the indigenous people of the village Bakhtia at the river Yenisei in the Siberian Taiga. The camera follows the protagonists in the village over a period of a year. The natives, whose daily routines have barely changed over the last centuries, keep living their lives according to their own cultural traditions.
16 positivefrom 16 commenters
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17 comments on Hacker News
also "Happy People: A Year in the Taiga", film by Werner Herzog
That reminds me of the documentary Happy People: A Year in the Taiga
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcHbZZPce_ZMUuYr5u6sxy3gsxLYLKiPv
New? No. Fully agreed.
But there's misrepresenting, and then there's "What the hell does this have to do with the movie I just watched?"
Good advertising (and I speak as an advertiser) sets up your expectations appropriately so that once you've experienced the product (in this case a movie) you leave satisfied.
Bad advertising promises you something completely different so that you leave the experience disappointed, which results in bad word of mouth.
Honestly, what none of the advertising for Civil War accomplishes (and I really liked the movie) is telling you that this is a movie about war journalism more than anything else. Yeah, there's a "this could happen here" message. But the core experience of the film is what it's like (presumably) to be a war correspondent. Didn't expect that at all going into the theatre.
Also... I loved Happy People. But yes, it's depressing. Beautifully so, but not a comedy.
This looks great. Relatedly, Werner Herzog made a documentary on the Taiga:
"Happy People: A Year in the Taiga":
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1683876/
Great documentary on a similar subject: Happy People. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_People:_A_Year_in_the_Taiga
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga by Dmitry Vasyukov. The English narration was written/voiced by Werner Herzog and matches the tone of the documentary perfectly. If you’ve ever had any interest in homesteading, or just getting away from it all, I would highly recommend it.
Related: I recently watched Werner Herzog's "Happy People: A Year in the Taiga" (can highly recommend). At the end of the documentary, a Siberian hunter returns from his cabin to his home village for Christmas. I takes him an entire day by snowmobile in harsh Siberian winter conditions, and at the end he travels for several hours in total darkness. He does not make a single stop.
His dog travels with him, but not on the snowmobile. He runs next to the snow mobile the entire trip.
Finally, the hunter arrives at the village late in the evening. The dog doesn't even seem to be exhausted. He happily greets the hunter's family members, and a woman casually mentions "well, the dog must be hungry". They give him something to eat, and that's that.
Needless to say, it left me deeply impressed.
Here's my list of 10/10 documentaries:
Biopics and Portraits:
- Kung Fu Elliot (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3228302/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- Listen to Me Marlon (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4145178/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- Man on Wire (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1155592/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- My Winnipeg (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1093842/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- A Gray State (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6794380/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1683876/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- Valley Uprising (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3784160/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- You've Been Trumped (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1943873/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
Environmental:
- Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3302820/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- The Cove (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1313104/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- Chasing Coral (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6333054/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- Virunga (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3455224/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
Crime:
- Cartel Land (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4126304/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- The Act of Killing (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2375605/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- The Culture High (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1778338/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4299972/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- West of Memphis (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2130321/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- How to Make Money Selling Drugs (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1276962/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- The Fear of 13 (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5083702/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- Brother's Keeper (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103888/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution' (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446610/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
Reflecting on Life and Death:
- Given (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4890452/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- Extremis (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5538078/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- Touching the Void (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379557/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- Attention: A Life in Extremes (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2846628/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
Society:
- Israel vs Israel (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1753960/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- Inside Job (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645089/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
- The Overnighters (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3263996/?ref_=rt_li_tt)
Reminds me of a scene in "Happy People", a documentary about life in the Russian taiga, where the hunter fashioned a pair of skis by splitting a tree.
Link if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cPhWpprLmM
> Depends how hungry you are. If the alternative's dying, most people would.
Yeah, survival movies like Cast Away, Into The Wild, and 127 Hours (I just saw the latter) underline that people do weird things to survive including diet-wise. But I also saw the voluntary coin of the story in the beautiful documentary Happy People: A Year in the Taiga. An animal lives in freedom and relative peace, until it gets hunted and killed. That's different from ~45 days of prison life a chicken here gets. Can't compare that 1:1 and judge the former as non-vegan. Its as close to vegan as it gets due to being natural.
Yup. I just saw Happy People: A Year in the Taiga [1] about heart of Siberia where hunters live a solitary life of hard labor and independence most of the year. They have very little impact on the world, but I think most people are generally ignorant of things like their Co2 footprint. Significant or insignificant goes many ways..
[1] https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1683876/
Highly recommend Happy People: A Year in the Taiga http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1683876/
Or how about a watching list? I'll start:
- "Happy People: A Year in the Taiga " http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1683876/
- "Oh Boy" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1954701/
- "American Beauty" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169547/
- "Amélie" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211915/
There is a somewhat similar russian documentary about people leaving in the small settlements in Siberia: Happy People https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbhPIK-oBvA
I found the documentary Happy People: A Year in the Taiga to be well worth the 90+ minute investment. No spin or agenda, just the hard truth about life in Siberia. Free on Netflix.
Bakhtia, Russia
For more info on this village see the film Happy People http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1683876/
Note that an added bonus is that this place has the best chance of surviving World War III.
Note that Alaska may be a reasonable alternative as long as you stay well inland away from the ocean. Consider the village of Tok which may be the highest elevation town in Alaska.
There's also another great documentary from Werner Herzog called Happy People: A Year in the Taiga. Very genuine and profound. Werner is a master of being in the moment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_People:_A_Year_in_the_Taiga