Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
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.
Werner Herzog's reworked documentary about Siberian hunters and trappers in the Taiga is a genuinely singular piece of work. The cinematography is breathtaking — vast snowscapes, frozen rivers, and intimate village life captured with remarkable patience and beauty. Novelty is high: there is simply no other film quite like this, immersing viewers so thoroughly in a pre-modern, self-sufficient way of life on the Yenisei River. Herzog's narration adds a meditative, philosophical layer that elevates the material beyond standard nature documentary. Acting is not really applicable in a traditional sense — the subjects are observed rather than performing — so it sits at below average by default. The plot is episodic and season-driven rather than dramatically structured, which works for the format but limits conventional narrative tension. The ending feels organic but somewhat inconclusive, fading out as life in the Taiga simply continues.