HAPPY PEOPLE: A YEAR IN THE TAIGA (Music Box Films)

The documentary Happy People: A Year in the Taiga—which was shot not by director Werner Herzog but by Russian (co-) director Dmitry Vasyukov—is about the world of the Siberian wilderness. Stretching hundreds of kilometers, it’s where hunters go about their lives trapping for animals in the woods, fishing, and going about the freezing cold. No, make that way below the freezing cold. At one point, Herzog remarks it’s a mild day in December, at 33 degrees below zero.

We’re given a very straightforward look at what happens for a couple of trappers who have been working there their whole lives—since the early 1970s for one of them. (Another, Mikhail, is related to filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky.) The film’s all about process: how to make an animal trap using primitive “but,” as Herzog observes, “very sophisticated” snares out of sticks and fresh meat; skis out of wood that have to be bent just a certain way; and when summer comes around, how to make mosquito repellant out of tar since, you know, the corner drugstore isn’t nearby.

These people aren’t entirely primitive or going about it like one of Herzog’s most notorious subjects, Timothy Treadwell in Grizzly Man. These woodsmen of the taiga know what they’re doing, and they also rely on some modern technology: motors for boats, some cars, and in the village, television. There is also some brief time spent on those who remain in the village and spend their months trekking from cabin to cabin, doing menial tasks and wasting away drinking. (One brief but insightful conversation sees a couple of these workers arguing over who is to blame, themselves or Russia, for their super-low wages). And there is one little old woman who has kept some items of a long-forgotten past: dolls to ward off evil spirits. Unfortunately, as we also see, a fire destroys pieces of that history.

It must be noted that for those coming to this film expecting the usual dosage of Herzogian absurdity will be disappointed, or just thrown off guard. He came to this project after the footage was already shot for a TV documentary, and within his busy schedule he worked with his longtime editor, Joe Bini, to construct what we see here, which resembles (to give it high praise) the 91-year-old Nanook of the North, Robert Flaherty’s film that chronicled the day to day living in the isolated Arctic. (The German debut of this film was 2010, around the time Herzog was making Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Into the Abyss, and Death Row.)

But, if one comes down to it, this is really an inflated National Geographic documentary. Which is fine because he still finds captivating material—a story one of the trappers tells about his dog fighting a bear (with tragic results) brings a human dimension to the film. And a bit of hilarity comes out of a late-summer visit from a local Russian politician, who gives a brief speech about stomping out corruption, followed by an actual song and dance from said politico (with female back-up singers). The kids, Herzog notes, get into it, while the older, more hard-bitten folks could care less.

There are many great sights to see to be sure: frozen rivers, the copious snow, and swarms of mosquitoes. But I found the film wearing itself out by the last 20 minutes or so. It becomes repetitive by going back to material that was covered in the film’s first part. If you see one fur trapping demonstration, you’ve seen them all.

And yet for television, which I am sure this will find its way to, it will make for a satisfying experience, particularly if one has a good TV (albeit the film was shot on lesser quality digital video). Whether one wants to trek out into the Manhattan wilderness to see it for full price at the IFC Center, I can’t say. But if you want your roughing-it-in-the-great-outdoors experience by way of some concise storytelling, here it is.