Plot
A documentary on the indigenous people living in Bakhtia, the heart of the Siberian Taiga; some 300 villagers whose daily routines have barely changed over the last century and live according to their own values and cultural traditions.

Release Year: 2010

Rating: 7.7/10 (640 voted)

Critic's Score: 70/100

Director: Dmitry Vasyukov

Stars: Werner Herzog

Storyline
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. The expressive pictures are accompanied by original sound bites quoting the villagers.

Writers: Werner Herzog, Rudolph Herzog

Cast:
Werner Herzog - (voice)

Release Date: December 2011

Filming Locations: Siberia, Russia

User Review

Eye on the Taiga

Rating: 8/10

Solid and straightforward illumination of the ways in which a few fur-trappers live and work year-round in the Siberian Taiga.

Starting in Spring, we follow the stoic men on their seasonal routines in the village of Bakhtia on the Yenisei river. The utterly unique sight and sound of that big old river thawing and moving and creaking under the warm sun is totally sublime. With the onset of summer, the villagers participate in a fishing frenzy while fending off massive swarms of mosquitoes by rubbing tar all over themselves, their kids and their dogs. As autumn brings torrential rains, the water level rises and the trappers anxiously begin boating their heavy supplies into the vast forest. They begin repairing their traditional traps scattered throughout the expanse while re-constructing their personal wooden huts, which they will use as shelters along their treks through the deep snow.

Other than one hilarious moment showing an alternatively modern fishing method, most all preparations for the long and lonely winter of work in the wilderness are performed according to very old cultural traditions. The simple and skilled construction of skis, traps, canoes, and huts from natural materials is shown with a patient fascination that draws us into a culture uniquely connected to the earth.

Herzog's narration adds insight and a quirky humor to this otherwise forthright film. His patent deadpan humor -- largely deriving in his over-enunciated German accent -- and his honest admiration of these self-reliant men living off the land in total freedom from materialism and bureaucracy is refreshing, even if a bit romanticized.

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