‘Happy People’ Trailer: Werner Herzog Takes His Camera To Remote Siberia
I’ll listen toWerner Herzogread any script — even the lightly written villain role inJack Reacher— and so the appearance of a new Herzog documentary is a thing of many pleasures. First, there’s his extraordinary ability to capture documentary subjects. Then there’s his tendency towards the pursuit of “ecstatic truth,” which isHerzog’s termfor a depiction of reality thatisn’t true, strictly speaking, but uses the false to probe towards an inaccessible truth.
And then there’s Herzog’s scripting and narrating, the combo of which always sets his efforts apart from other documentaries. I don’t know how much of Herzog we’ll hear inHappy People: A Year in the Taiga, as this trailer is mostly comprised of images, free of any decorative narration. But those images look incredible, and this film (co-directed withDmitry Vasyukov) could be a perfect companion toEncounters at the End of the World.
See the trailer below.
Happy Peoplehas been rolling through festivals for over a year. It hits some US theaters later this month.
Deep in the Siberian wilderness, far away from civilization, 300 people inhabit the small village of Bakhta at the river Yenisei. There are only two ways to reach this outpost: by helicopter or boat. There’s no telephone, running water or medical aid. The locals, whose daily routines have barely changed over the last centuries, live according to their own values and cultural traditions. Withinsightful commentary written and narrated by Herzog, HAPPY PEOPLE follows one of the Siberian trappers through all four seasons of the year to tell the story of a culture virtually untouched by modernity.
