His Movie Review: Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)

Why we watched it: Looked interesting in Netflix

Our rating: 4 out of 5 stars

His review: I love cold places. And I love the idea of a cold place isolated from the world. A cold place in the woods. But as I don’t live in a cold, isolated place, I’ve often wondered how I would respond to the day-to-day life in such a place. I don’t trust those Discovery Channel series of life in Alaska as being accurate or even realistic. This documentary, though, gives a pretty accurate picture of life in Siberia.

We get a full year, starting in spring and ending in the winter. Their life is finding food—hunting, trapping, fishing—and preparing to do all these. These aren’t complete hermits. They have snowmobiles, clothes from stores, electricity and weapons. The hunters leave the village for several months to live in a series of huts as they hunt, only to return for a few days over Christmas.

This is documentary that provides a fascinating picture of their lives. For such simple folk, they are absorbing in their skills and abilities. Even if you don’t have wanderlust for cold, isolated places, this is a documentary worth streaming.

Her review: