Taiga life is tough. Directed by Werner Herzog, the “Happy People” doc invites us to Bakhta, a remote Siberian village.
It’s 2010. Winter lasts seven months. Temperatures plunge to -50°F. Crazy, huh?
Meet Gennady Soloviev, a trapper.
He constructs wooden skis. By hand.
He also trains his dog like a sage schooling a protegé. “My dog is my companion,” he says. No big-city technology. Just dogs, skis, and a knack for survival.
Fish and furs? They are currency here.
Gennady traps sables…one trap equals two bottles of vodka: wimple economics.
During January’s “Ice Parade,” the river’s 12-inch ice gives way… suddenly.
No warning — living here is tricky stuff.
Have you ever seen a mosquito cloud?
Happens here every summer.
Gennady grins. “You get used to it”.
As for society’s “conveniences”?
Please… “What would I do with a phone?” Gennady scoffs.
Trailer for “Happy People: A Year in the Taiga”
Where to Watch “Happy People: A Year in the Taiga”
Right now, it looks like you can watch Happy People for free on YouTube across these 4 separate videos:
Stream for free on YouTube:
If those embedded videos above dont’ work, here are the free links tow atch (note: The intro is the same for each of them so you can skip to about 1 minute 40 of part 2, 3 and 4):
Stream for free on Kanopy
You can also watch it for free on Kanopy (with a library or university card) at https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/happy-people-year-taiga
Stream on Amazon Prime Video
Click https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/0G9DYG0IX4BIU76P4GFI69UNNF/
Stream for free (with ads)
- Amazon’s Freevee at https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/0G9DYG0IX4BIU76P4GFI69UNNF/
- Tubi at https://tubitv.com/movies/530331
- PlexTV at https://watch.plex.tv/movie/happy-people-a-year-in-the-taiga
Stream on Other Places
- Ovid at https://www.ovid.tv/videos/happy-people-a-year-in-the-taiga
- Check back at https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/happy-people-a-year-in-the-taiga for other streaming options
Vitals
- Genre: Ethnographic, Nature
- Release Date: January 12, 2010
- Director: Werner Herzog (directror of some of the best documentaries I’ve seen such as “Grizzly Man” (98/100) — he’s also the subject of “Burden of Dreams” (93/100)
- Narrator: Werner Herzog
- Runtime: 94 minutes
Ratings
- My rating: 97/100
- IMDB: 7.7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 77/100 (user rating) and 88/100 (critics)
My Favorite Parts (Includes Spoiler Alerts!)
Here are some notes I jotted down about my highlights:
- Gennady crafts skis from birch wood, traps from bark.
- In Autumn, hunters fish in various ways, including night fishing with a torch to attract and spear fish.
- Food gets stowed high in Autumn to avoid bears; trappers use ladders and high platforms.
- Trappers have a “base hut” and maintain various outlying huts throughout the year.
- Mosquitoes are a huge problem in spring and summer; trappers use tree bark tar as repellent.
- Come early winter, bears hibernate; trappers wrap tree posts with plastic to deter mice.
- Winter traversing involves snowmobiles and 190km of sable-trap checking, gun on shoulder.
- Trappers return to the village for New Year’s Eve; the 150km journey sees dogs running non-stop behind snowmobiles.
- Siberia’s Yar-Sale: A 600-people village.
- Gennady Soloviev (56) endures -58°F winters.
- Gennady’s philosophy: “Simplicity equals happiness.”
- Siberian Huskies pull sleds, carry up to 100 lbs.
A Cool Scene
GENNADY: “This river, it’s our lifeblood.”
FILMMAKER: “Isn’t it perilous during winter?”
GENNADY: “Peril makes it essential.”
[Long pause]
FILMMAKER: “You never consider city life?”
GENNADY: “Cities confine. Here, I breathe.”
Thank you for reading!
-Rob Kelly