Happy People: A Year in the Taiga
2010 · Movie · NR · 94 min · ★ 7.3 · 81% critics
The film follows the everyday life of people in the Siberian Taiga village of Bakhtia by the Yenisei River across one year. Routines shaped by long-standing cultural traditions continue through the seasons as they trap, hunt, and prepare for winter with little outside contact.
Also known as Happy People - A Year in the Taiga
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Watch free on Tubi — also streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Curiosity Stream and Fandor.
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Details
- Years
- 2010
- Release date
- 2010-09-03
- Language
- English
- Rated
- NR
- Runtime
- 94 min
- Max quality
- HD
- Critic score
- 81/100
- TMDB rating
- 7.3/10 (141 votes)
About
You’ll likely enjoy this if you want a year-in-the-wilderness documentary like Cave of Forgotten Dreams or Into the Abyss, with a calm, immersive pace and harsh-season realism; Not for you if you need lots of city comforts or clear answers about happiness, or if you want a broader focus beyond a few trappers.
Pros: breathtaking Taiga landscapes; absorbing slow pace; deep survival routines | Cons: limited village variety; not always portrayed happy; some philosophical narration
Themes
- remoteness
- wilderness
- based on true story
- snow
- dog sled
- siberia
Cast & crew
Werner Herzog
as Narrator (voice)
- GS
Gennady Soloviev
as Self - Trapper #1
- AB
Anatoly Blumei
as Self - Trapper #2
- GT
Gennady Tiganov
as Self - Native Boat Builder
- MT
Mikhail Tarkovsky
as Self - Trapper #3
Directed by Werner Herzog, Dmitry Vasyukov