Rotten
"Happy People" seems to strain toward the notion that harsh nature makes for a pure heart. And perhaps it does for some. But all?
Tom Long, Detroit News
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga
The director of Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Grizzly Man takes you on an epic journey into the heart of the Siberian wilderness
2010 · 1h 34m · Not Rated
Documentary
Directed by
Werner Herzog
,
Dmitry Vasyukov
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Happy People: A Year in the Taiga
Overview
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.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
88%
Tomatometer
Fresh
Titling a documentary about snowbound Siberian fur trappers "Happy People" is not as ironic as it seems.
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Fresh
Herzog's longing for the ideological purity in which these lives are lived, free of paperwork and bureaucracy, taxes and technology, drives the film, which lacks an overall story arc.
Barbara VanDenburgh, Arizona Republic
Fresh
It's a do-it-yourself world that Herzog clearly admires - much of what we see is the men performing the tasks that enable them to survive.
Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle
Rotten
They decidedly don't seem happy. And "Happy People's" decision to skate down the frozen Yenisei without examining their unhappiness more closely leaves a slight chill.
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post
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