快乐的人们

Happy People: A Year in the Taiga: Documentary or Poetry?

http://postdefiance.com/happy-people-a-year-in-the-taiga-documentary-or-poetry/

Nobody tells me what to do…I am my own man.

Such is the claim of one of the virile characters in Happy People: A Year in the Taiga, a documentary co-directed by Dmitry Vasyukov and the prolific German filmmaker Werner Herzog.

These words seem familiar to an American audience, almost stereotypical of the mentality by which we are regularly defined. But the words are spoken by a Russian sable trapper living in the middle of Siberia with nary an outlet to civilization as we know it. “Amurrican?” Far from it.

The film follows a year in the lives of sable trappers in a remote Bakhtian village: a year that, like every other, is a quest to survive the harsh conditions. Herzog and Vasyukov present the narrative as a slice-of-life drama, an everyday epic for which the camera crew is merely along for the ride.

Herzog and company are enthralled with the lives of the men they’re following. In fact, the directorial duo seems more than glad to cooperate with the decidedly masculine culture they document. Women make brief and obligatory appearances; the rest of the time, we spectators follow the Russian men through the wilderness and let Herzog’s narration wash over us.

When that smooth German accent does its best, it easily persuades us of the extraordinary nature of the men we’re watching. Yet Herzog’s narration can be just a little problematic. At one point he rises to sublime heights of description/sinks into the worst kind of glorified othering:

“Now, out on their own, the trappers become what they essentially are: happy people. Accompanied only by their dogs, they live off the land. They are completely self-reliant. They are truly free. No rules, no taxes, no government, no laws, no bureaucracy, no phones, no radio, equipped only with their individual values and standard of conduct.”

As this voiceover overlaps with symphonic music, we see footage of a man steering a canoe upriver by means of an outboard motor. Herzog goes on to tell us that this man’s name is Mikhail Tarkovsky, relation of the acclaimed Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky. In a truly odd juxtaposition, the film insists on the technological self-sufficiency of the Taiga people, while aligning them with modern advancements like the internal combustion engine and one of the most technologically advanced forms of art: cinema.

And Herzog’s narration isn’t the only aspect that rings less as documentary and more as poetry. The invisibility of the camera’s presence that makes this otherwise lovely journey is also problematic. A documentary common practice, to be sure, but Herzog is among the most adept and savvy of documentarians; he knows what he’s doing when he makes the choice to keep the presence of a non-native film crew completely out of the camera’s field of vision. The technique potentially ignores the camera’s very real and very foreign presence on that home turf, keeping at arm’s length a world that it conflictingly wants to bring within our reach.

By distancing the audience from the Siberian snow and its inhabitants, Herzog is free to perform a documentary of poetry, a free-form ode to an idealized people that he profoundly admires and wants us to admire, too. And what’s wrong with poetry? Nothing, of course…but beware of poetry masquerading as simple history.

To be fair, Herzog acknowledges the presence of chainsaws and snowmobiles in this land of self-reliance. And the camera records myriad other technologies that have somehow made their way into this inaccessible wilderness. And herein lies the real hazard of Herzog’s hidden camera: there is no such thing as a “pure” culture since every culture is the progeny and interpretation of others. By holding aloft the Taiga people as “other,” therefore perhaps better, idealization becomes falsification.

Herzog wants us to see this world as unblemished by all that is modern, a time warp into an edenic realm. In so doing, he makes choices about what we see and what we don’t. But enough contradictions slip through the cracks to reveal his construal of this society.

Even a glorified interpretation is an interpretation, not equal to the original.

But to be even more fair, the subjects that Happy People documents deserve our attention. As we complain about spotty 4G service and navel-gaze about “the nature of art” and other such privileged questions, there remain folks in this world whose isolation brings out something we are unlikely to see in ourselves.

When the Siberian trapper says he is his own man, he says it without the pretense that we almost reflexively hear in such a statement. He knows his dependence on the land, the ecosystem of which he is a part. When he recounts his dog’s death at the hands of a bear, we are not likely to roll our eyes at his tears, perceiving his reliance on and love for an animal whose loyalty allowed him to keep on living.

The moral of this story is not: “Eat your dinner; there are starving children in Africa.” On the other hand, it’s not far from it.

第二篇： by | Steven Boone

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/happy-people-a-year-in-the-taiga-2013

Film director Werner Herzog's voice is so distinct and soothing that those of us who swear by it as a tonic for the soul sometimes assume the man is a household name. I made that mistake recently while chatting with a friend who praised Christoph Waltz's performance in "Django Unchained." "Yeah," I said, "The only person who could play a multilingual, multi-genius German impresario better than Waltz would have been Herzog."

"Wha? What's a hearse hog?"

I played her Herzog's reading of the children's book Go the Fuck to Sleep and his narration for Ramin Bahrani's short film "Plastic Bag." She was hooked. The mellifluous German accent, that rising-falling modulation, worked its magic.

And that was just Werner lending his singular sound to other people's projects.

Herzog's voiceover narration has been as powerful a utility for his own potentially ponderous documentaries as Clint Eastwood's profile has been for the latter's tough-guy dramas. The films could probably stand on their own merits without That Voice, but why should they?

Like "Grizzly Man," Herzog's latest documentary, "Happy People: A Year in the Taiga" is mostly built around another filmmaker's priceless footage. Russian videographer Dmitry Yasyukov shot four documentaries about Russian fur trappers in the Siberian Taiga, a remote wilderness larger than the whole of the United States. Herzog happened upon the films at an L.A. friend's house and became as obsessed with their beauty as he once was with Timothy Treadwell's footage of grizzly bears.

His authorial signature comes through in the way he edits the material and gives it meaningful context through narration. It's a touching gesture, one filmmaker finding the glory in another's images and amplifying it through his own generous and idiosyncratic vision. What Herzog gleans from Yaskyuov's exhaustive material is a simple observation: The men of the Taiga are heroes of rugged individualism.

“They live off the land and are self reliant, truly free,” Herzog intones, as a Klaus Badelt score works to send a chill of admiration up our spines. “No rules, no taxes, no government, no laws, no bureaucracy, no phones, no radio, equipped only with their individual values and standard of conduct.”

In nearly every Herzog documentary there is a speech like this one, wherein the director reveals in plain language his passion for his subject. This particular song of praise says that people who live simply, honestly and responsibly are generally happy people. It also sings of tradition more eloquently than Teyve in "Fiddler on the Roof." Work and tradition abide. One hunter boasts that his skill is an inheritance of a thousand years of practice and refinement.

There is another way to interpret Yasyukov's material, as a bleak, miserablist view of the hunters' circumstances that emphasizes the fact that they hardly ever have a moment's rest. Work is a constant, and nature always threatens to freeze, drown, starve or (in the form of aggressive bears) eat them. This is the perspective a young Herzog might have chosen. “Overwhelming and collective murder” is how he described nature during the making of his bleakest, angriest epic, "Fitzcarraldo." (His grandiose rants were just as fun to listen to when they were depressing.)

Instead, this time we get celebratory scenes of a hunter and his son serenely enduring mosquitoes that swarm over every centimeter of exposed flesh during a dank Taiga summer. Yasyukov's footage exhaustively documents the hunters' work processes, so Herzog uses it to take us through each step of making mosquito repellent from scratch. (To my surprise, it's similar to preparing old-fashioned blackface.)

Though they use manufactured equipment like snowmobiles and wear some presumably factory-made clothing, much of the technology these trappers and their families employ is built from scratch. In a fascinating segment that suggests Herzog and Yasyukov would produce great instructional DVDs ("How to Survive the Apocalypse"), a hunter shows us how to make wooden skis that will outlast the most expensive synthetic designer ones.

Fascination with processes and with the men who master them to become expert woodsmen leaves Herzog no time to address their wives and children, whom we glimpse only at hunting sendoffs and when the men return to their homes loaded down with quarry. Whatever routines occupy the wives is of little interest to either Yasyukov or Herzog. What we do catch of them says that they, too, are very happy people. “I'm alone again,” one wife says, as her man heads out on another long expedition. In a typical arthouse fiction film, she would be the face of uncertainty and despair in that moment. In "Happy People," she just states the fact with a bittersweet smile. Herzog cuts away (or Yasyukov's cameraman stops recording) quickly.

The dogs, on the other hand, receive rapturous attention. One thing I learned from "Happy People" is that a dog in the Taiga is like a horse in the American Frontier: not merely a “best friend” but a lifeline. A brooding hunter becomes emotional when recalling a dog who gave up her life defending him from a bear attack. We see the dogs set to work with military discipline. Herzog adds some stirring, heartening Badelt music to a scene of a dog keeping pace with his master's snowmobile for nearly a hundred miles.

So the focus is tight, but the love comes through in many ways. Herzog mentions that one of the fishermen who shot some of the footage is a relative of the great Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. The instant that name came up, I was struck with memories of all the odes to Russia's natural beauty in Tarkovsky's nostalgic films. It made me consider that Herzog might have taken on this project as a gesture of German-Russian relations—an interdependent association now, but historically one of horrific wars. Imagine a Japanese filmmaker celebrating Chinese traditions. (Actually, there are films like Kenji Mizoguchi's Japanese take on Chinese history, "Princess Yang Kwei-fei," and they tend to be weirdly interesting.)

The fact that Herzog shot none of the footage comes across most strongly when we briefly visit a couple of indigenous Taiga people. They build a boat with staggering precision, row it out onto the icy waters, and then they are gone from the film. I can't imagine Herzog having access to folks whose traditions go even further back than the Russians leaving it at that.

All of this apparent Walden-like freedom struck close to home for me—or would, if I had a home. I stepped off the grid in New York City four years ago, trying to find a simpler way to live that would free me of corporate wage-slavery. Four years later, I've found that such freedom is virtually impossible in American cities. To live as free and clear as the men of the Taiga do, I would have to go to a farm, a commune—or the Taiga. On a landscape of concrete, there is no hunting or homesteading, just purchasing and renting. Parks and community gardens preserve some testy relationship with the natural world, but, let's face it, the world I and most folks reading this essay occupy keeps us dependent upon corporate delivery systems for our survival essentials. Are we happy this way?

Herzog, whose films have captured ecstatic faces in prisons, asylums, rainforests and arctic base camps, would probably answer, “That is up to you, my friend. You must work with whatever you have been given,” in a voice that could make a man caught in a bear trap smile.

最近看快乐的人们，一部纪录片，讲一群生活在西伯利亚的人们一年四季如何生活的，砍伐树木，建造渔船，捕鱼，收货食物之类的。这部纪录片的名字虽然叫快乐的生活，但条件真的很艰苦，感觉完全快乐不起来。冬天，大雪纷飞，那个寒冷劲儿，压在屋顶上的雪会把屋顶压垮。而夏天，到处都是蚊子，不管是人还是狗，都被蚊子包围着，只有在出风口才能稍微好一点。猎人们就用土办法，自己熬焦油，给自己、小孩子、家里的猎狗，都涂上厚厚的一层焦油，晚上洗澡把它洗掉，第二天依次往复。 可是这样艰苦的生活条件，依然可以很快乐，原因就在于可以发挥人的自主性。就像一个老猎人说，在前苏联时期，他最喜欢被分到当猎人的工作，因为没有人催促，没有人指挥，他可以自己决定什么时候开始、什么时候休息，他拥有充分自由。虽然条件很艰苦，但他们却可以用双手去制造工具，用工具去克服各种困境，这样的生活，虽然很艰苦，却很有滋味。 在现代生活中，我们常常会犯拖延症啊什么的，一方面是因为我们已经被现代技术给宠坏了，习惯了即时享乐、有求马上应的生活节奏；另一方面可能是因为我们要做的很多事情都是被安排的。一个人主动去做什么，和他被安排去做什么，哪怕是一样的事情，但是感受是截然不同。你有没有发现对于你喜欢做的事情，哪怕没有被安排，哪怕很艰难，你都是甘之如饴、乐此不疲的。 所以呢对症下药，要想跨过拖延症，一方面是延迟享受，把手机掏出来耍的时候，先数120下。另一方面，真诚的对面对工作和生活，不喜欢的事情先拒绝一下，拒绝不了再做，你也对得起自己了。对于喜欢做的事情，就持之不懈的坚持下去，哪怕没有什么产出，享受这个过程本身就是一个胜利了。如果没有发现自己特别感兴趣的事情，那么不妨多尝试一下、发掘一下，多给自己机会。特别是如果你像我一样，小时候沉迷学习，没有机会发展兴趣爱好，不妨长大了补一下这门功课，多探索一下自己的未知性。其实想想，我们一直急着去了解别人、建立关系，为什么不先静下心来，了解一下自己、探索一下自己、宠爱一下自己、做自己最好的小伙伴？

我真的太喜欢这部片子了，不是告诉自己这部片子很棒我要喜欢它的那种喜欢，是可以看哭，是看得心里酸酸涩涩，思绪涌动的那种喜欢!这里是西伯利亚，巴赫塔，位于俄罗斯北部叶尼塞河畔的一个村庄，镜头对准了这里的一部分人——猎人!哦我的天，一个人拥有1500km²的广大土地，在这里过着自由自在令很多人羡慕的生活，却也是在很多人眼里根本承受不了的生活! 短短的90分钟的片子，经历了从一年冬天到下一年冬天。冬天，零下五十度的气温，远离村庄远离家人在狗狗的陪伴下在针叶林里度过几个月!白天带着狗狗打猎，检查陷阱的收货，凿冰捕鱼，晚上回到夏天搭建的屋子里;夏天忍受巨多的蚊子，开始为冬天做准备! 我觉得他们的生活在现代化充斥的今天是难得的，是令我感觉到震撼和敬佩的，但扪心自问，我羡慕吗？我不知道……我向往吗？我不敢向往，我在这里根本活不下去…… 他们，延续祖辈的生活方式 按照祖辈传承下来的经验和技能在这里生活，每天忙碌而辛劳，冬天酷寒，夏日难耐，他们会享受自己自由的生活还是偶尔也会感慨生活的艰辛?我只能说子非鱼…… 他们与狗狗的情谊太令我动容了!那只勇敢地扑向熊的狗狗，让我面部肌肉抽动，眼泪扑簌簌地掉下来……他们冻得通红的双手和面颊，令我心中酸酸涩涩，日复一日、年复一年这样的生活啊！ 影片最后远去的背影……这就是生活吧！

俄乌冲突进入第六个月，双方都没有降级的意思，反而在不断升级前线的战事。

据英国广播公司报道，自俄乌冲突以来，已有超过1200万人逃离乌克兰的家园，其中超过560万人逃到邻国，另有650万人在乌克兰国内流离失所。

除此，不少国家也因为俄乌冲突而陷入关系民生的能源危机和粮食危机。

元代张养浩在《山坡羊·潼关怀古》中写道

“兴，百姓苦；亡，百姓苦！”

大国博弈，被献祭的永远是夹在战场缝隙中求生的无辜百姓。

如果没有战争，他们的生活也许谈不上富裕，但起码可以悠闲地享受粗茶淡饭、鸟语花香，过简单而质朴的生活。

早在10年前，德国导演赫尔佐格就通过镜头，为我们展现了地球上天堂的模样：人们自由地砍伐树木，建造渔船，捕鱼，收获食物，度过漫长的冬季和四季...而这个“天堂”并不遥远，就位于俄罗斯北部叶尼塞河畔的村庄——巴哈提雅。这个远离大都市的村子地处广袤的西伯利亚，只有三百多户居民，不通铁路和公路，出入只有两种方式，一个是直升机、另一个便是船舶。

听起来，生活在这个原始、闭塞、远离现代文明的环境中，生活一定很艰苦和单调吧。但是导演却称呼他们是一群“快乐的人们”，这也正是本片的片名。

快乐的人们

Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)

导演: 沃纳·赫尔佐格 / 德米特里.瓦萨科夫

在这部长达90分钟的纪录片中，导演用温柔而深情的镜头为我们记录了生活在巴哈提雅村庄的人们的三餐四季。他们对抗恶劣的生存环境、为捕猎季做足充分的准备；他们遵循自然法则，沿袭古老的生活传统和生活智慧；他们在广阔的针叶林中与猎犬孤独相守、捕猎食物...他们的生活或许原始野性，但却真实质朴、简单快乐，是城市人不曾体验过的恣意与放纵。

当狩猎季开始时，猎人们乘坐独木舟带着猎狗顺流而下，前往捕猎场，脸上洋溢着自在的笑容，令人神往。正如导演在旁白中所描述“现在，猎人们只身闯荡。他们回归了自己的本来面目，快乐的人们。只有几只狗陪伴着，远离故土。他们完全靠自己。他们自由自在，没有规则，没有税收，没有政府，没有法律，没有官僚组织，没有电话，没有收音机。只带着他们自己的价值观和行为准则。”

解放天性、回归自然、无拘无束。

那一刻，还有比他们更快乐的人吗？

反观我们，生活在物资丰富、科技发达、信息迅捷、物流发达的大都市中，却被内耗、焦虑、抑郁等各种压力和情绪折磨到体无完肤，我们内心的棕熊似乎比巴哈提雅猎人在针叶林中遇到的更加凶猛和可怖。

为什么我们拥有的越多，却越不快乐，幸福感越低？

因为我们为原本简单的生活加注了太多砝码，前途、名利、欲望、梦想、财富、关系、圈子...我们被这些外在的欲求包裹着，忽略了生活本身的意义，其实是平平淡淡、简简单单。

巴哈提雅远离都市和现代文明，村民们的日常吃穿用度基本都是自给自足，他们在动手的过程中获得满足和快乐，也因此积累了实用的生存智慧。

四月份，天气逐渐暖和，猎人们会前往针叶林设置陷阱，赚取一些外快。

通常他们会带上足够的食物，在针叶林待上四周左右时间，同时设下数十个陷阱，并做下标记，等到狩猎季再回来收集猎物。

他们设置陷阱的手法，承袭了几辈，独特而实用。

五一劳动节的到来象征着冬天结束，春天来了。

此刻，猎手布鲁姆开始做独木舟，根纳季开始做滑雪板。

在制作滑雪板的过程中，根纳季特别嘱咐儿子，将刨好的木板一端放入沸水中浸泡几小时，可以让木材变得柔韧；之后在木板的一端慢慢施加均匀力道，让它变弯；弯曲之后再把前端削尖。顺序如果反了，木板则会裂开。最后一步，将滑雪板用火烤定型。

他们的制作技巧和工具都很传统，但是品质丝毫不输城市商场里用现代科技打磨的商品。

面朝叶尼塞河，渔获是村民的主要食物。

秋季，白天变短，是捕鱼的最佳时节。

他们捕鱼的方式和工具也很古老。

晚上用火光把鳕鱼吸引到岸边，再用史前工具——钉耙叉鱼。

他们一年四季吃鱼，也催生了五花八门的吃法，熏鱼、炸鱼、鲜鱼汤...花样百出、百吃不厌。

捕猎季从深秋开始，但专业陷阱需要长年累月的准备。

首先从搭建猎房开始。

他们春天收集合适的木材，夏天晒干，猎人们再相互帮忙搭建猎房。

每个猎人都有数十个猎房，大小不一，用于存储猎物和临时歇脚。

叶尼塞河畔的夏季气候宜人、食物充足，唯一让人烦恼的就是会遭受成群的蚊子叮咬。

但是，猎人们有自己的方法来抵御这群讨厌的家伙。

就是用桦树皮提炼焦油，涂抹在脸部和全身，等到晚上再洗掉。或许有些不舒服，但功效奇佳。

正是这种简单、原始、自给自足的生活，让巴哈提雅村的人们没有过多的欲求，也就没有任何负担和烦恼。他们的生活虽然单一，但每一天都值得期待。

除了宝贵的生活经验，他们还总结出了许多深刻的人生道理。

或许人人都懂，但并非人人都像他们那般敬畏和感恩。

在针叶林中捕猎，猎狗是猎人最不可或缺的好帮手，它们帮主人侦察情况、追捕猎物、找寻猎物，最重要的是狩猎季里无数个日日夜夜地陪伴与守候。

猎人们常说，“狗养活了我们，没有狗你就不是猎人。”

猎人们把猎狗当作家人去对待。

但是二哈们性格顽劣，有时候会破坏陷阱，甚至偷吃猎物。

猎人米哈伊尔说，“最好的训练方法是为狗专门设置陷阱，让他在里面待会儿，感到难受了它们就不会再触碰机关。如果用打这种方式来惩罚的话，反而会激发他们的逆反心理，趁主人不在时变本加厉偷食猎物。”

对于猎人来说，贪婪是最恶劣的品质。

比如十月初就开始设陷阱捕猎紫貂的人罔顾自然法则，将会受到其他猎人的厌恶和鄙视。

猎人以猎杀动物为生，很多人对这个职业敬而远之或嗤之以鼻。

对此，根纳季老爷子有着清醒而客观的认知：

我们都是凶手或是帮凶，即便这些人心肠软并且很容易怜悯别人。

和养猪人是为了获取猪肉一样，猎人迫于生计不得不杀害野生动物，它们当中不乏可爱的无辜的麋鹿、紫貂、金花鼠...野生动物和猎人之间是一场斗智斗勇的游戏。

但这就是自然法则，人在这里的身份就是自然生态系统中的一环。

要生存就必须杀生。猎人们能做的就是适度索取，不滥杀无辜。

常年穿梭在针叶林中的猎人们的生活看似孤独乏味，但他们并不是粗鲁的莽汉。

他们在狩猎途中，也不忘欣赏周遭的雄奇与壮美。

毕竟他们是少数可以见证寒冷和沉寂之美的人。

就像影片中其中以为猎人深情表白的那样

当我来到这里，我有一种实现梦想的感觉，

你欣赏自然美景的同时，还能一边工作（捕猎）。

他们是真正快乐自由的人们，没有政府没有法律没有收音机没有电话，唯有个人价值和独特天地，他们在向自然身处进发的同时，也逐渐贴近内心，大自然的神秘悠远唤起最深沉的情感，让他们乐在其中。

将视线收回到现实中，相较于简单淳朴的猎人，被各种世俗的欲望裹挟的我们似乎失去了快乐的能力。

这几天，一部11分钟的短视频《回村三天，二舅治好了我的精神内耗》刷爆全网。

作者在最后结尾时写到，“我四肢健全，上过大学，又生在一个充满机遇的时代，我理应度过一个比二舅更为饱满的人生。”

事实上，光是有这样的想法就已经输给二舅，注定了一个不快乐的人生。

因为世上没有“理应”这回事。

首先，二舅的励志人生有深刻的时代烙印，放在今天也许就不像视频中所表现得那么乐天知命、行云流水，或许就是贫穷裹挟下的困顿抑郁、一地鸡毛。

其次，二舅平淡质朴的生活源于他的知足与感恩。重新振作后的他没有过多去规划未来的人生，只是顺势而为。他不让自己因为残疾而就此躺平，也没激进地为自己设定非达不可的目标。只是为生活本身而忙碌奔波，反而获得了简单的快乐与满足。

二舅的故事中可以把我们从精神内耗和焦虑中短暂地解脱出来，但我们始终无法成为二舅。

因为身处在这个时代的我们对生活寄予了太多厚望，也为自己设定了太多目标，这些捆绑着我们的欲望和野心必然成为我们前进的压力和阻碍。高负荷运转之下，没有人能全身而退，也没有人能快活地行至终点。

快乐是一种选择，但在时代浪潮冲击下，我们需要克服更大的阻力才能取得有限的快乐，或许并不比二舅克服身体残疾和命运捉弄更轻松。