Review of Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010) by Dione P — 19 Apr 2013

Taiga is a huge mass of land in Serbia. Almost all year round, it is covered with snow and haze. Men in here earn their living from trapping wild animals and fishing. They live very simple lives but they live them happily with their families. Each of them owns a dog or two to help them everyday with their work. They build their own tools as they have practised their craftsmanship intuitively and passionately. For some, this kind of life is intense and tedious. But for the people in this village, it is quite normal. They have developed patience for life requires them to.

Werner Herzog's "Happy People, A year in the Taiga" is a documentary dedicated for hard work and patience. It discovers lives of few men in a small village where there is none left but to survive. Different from the life in the city where every tool, food, money people need from living is readily available, life in this village is hard and unstable.