Dersu Uzala - Bushcraft Lessons in the Boreal Forest and Taiga

I was just settling down this evening to watch one of my top 10 films of all time - Dersu Uzala, directed by Akira Kurosawa. I thought I would first do a little web search to learn more about the Russian language (and English subtitled) film, and discovered that someone had put the entire film onto YouTube. Granted it is chopped into little pieces, but this gives everyone the chance to see a fantastic film. It won the 1975 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Dersu Uzala wins the 2008 Mungo Says Bah! Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Taking place at the turn of the 20th century in Siberia, it features all kinds of bushcraft and primitive learnings. This is one of many reasons that I like the movie so much.

From Wikipedia:

The film is based on the 1923 memoir Dersu Uzala by Russian explorer Vladimir Arsenyev, about his exploration of the Sikhote-Alin region of Siberia over the course of multiple expeditions in the early 20th century.

The film opens to a forest that is being cleared for development, and Arseniev searching for an unmarked grave. The film then flashes back to Arseniev's surveying expedition to the region in 1902, before the village was built. A topographic expedition troop, led by Captain Arseniev, encounters a nomadic, aboriginal (Goldi) tribesman named Dersu Uzala who agrees to guide them through the harsh frontier. Initially viewed as an uneducated, eccentric old man, Dersu earns the respect of the soldiers through his great intelligence, accurate instincts, keen powers of observation, and deep compassion.

Get your popcorn, grab a blanket and settle in for a great movie:

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Hope you enjoyed it!

Mungo