werner herzog directed and narrates this film depicting the life of the people of the of Bakhtia in the Siberian tiaga ( a conifer forest) through the four seasons of the year. i struggled throughout the film to determine why it was called "happy people". this is a village of 300 people, so isolated it can only be reached by helicopter or boat. they live by the traditions they have always known, which means that everything they have or do comes by their own hands, (except for a chain saw and snowmobile). we see them making their own skis, and canoes, building shelters, fishing with nets, gardening and harvesting, with the primary focus always on the lives of the trappers, who work through 3 seasons to make and store the goods that will provide for them through the winter sable trapping season. there is really no time when they LOOK happy; though there are comments that when they are out trapping, the world is theirs.....no rules, no constrictions, living life on their terms. perhaps that makes for a HAPPY PEOPLE. really, i think it is just plain and simple, life. these people probably don't know anything else beyond them, since there is no phone or running water. (i did wonder what the population thought when werner herzog and the film crew documented their lives for a year.) the winter environment is harsh for the trappers, who each has his own defined trapping territory. each builds a series of huts, a day's journey apart, so there is shelter at the end of the day. man and his dog, trapping, collecting, eating frozen fish and a store of bread. HAPPY PEOPLE?
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