Movie Masterworks

“Rice, salt, matches …give some. Other people come, find food, not die.”

Synopsis: Against a backdrop of the treacherous mountains, rivers and icy plains of the Siberian wilderness, acclaimed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa (The Seven Samurai, Rashomon) stages an extraordinary adventure of comradeship and survival. For decades, Kurosawa had longed to film Vladimir Arsenyev’s novel and was only able to do so at the invitation of Mosfilm Studios in Russia, who financed an arduous, two-year filmmaking expedition into the far reaches of Siberia.

The Academy Award-winning (Best Foreign-Language Film) Dersu Uzala is the enthralling tale of an eccentric Mongolian frontiersman who is taken on a guide by a Soviet surveying crew. While the soldiers at first perceive Dersu as a naïve and comical relic of an uncivilized age, he quickly proves himself otherwise with displays of ingenuity and bravery unmatched by any member of the inexperienced mapping team, on more than one occasion becoming their unlikely savior.

Critique: Legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa ventures outside the Japanese language with Dersu Uzala, a spectacular visual journey through the lives of the eponymous Siberian hunter (Maksim Munzuk) and Russian explorer Arseniev (Yuri Solomin). The auteur displays on screen the awesome power of nature that words simply fail to adequately describe. Kurosawa brings Arseniev’s stirring memoir to life. Dersu and Arseniev undertake two expeditions together through the brutal Siberian wilderness. Their struggle to survive an incredibly dangerous ice storm leaves an indelible imprint on the viewers mind. Although the landscape is undeniably breathtaking, the film is really a human portrait, focusing on the lengthy friendship between the two men. It’s tested by differences in opinion, culture, time and space; the perennial challenges to any human relationship.

-Ky N. Nguyen, Washington Post Diplomat

“Akira Kurosawa transcends the confines of traditional cinema with the startling imagery and camerawork of Dersu Uzala: the barren trees glowing red from the embers of the campfire; the ethereal blue smoke rising as Dersu points out his family’s burial site to Arseniev; the long, static shot of the two men looking at the horizon, juxtaposed between the rising moon and setting sun; the seamless tracking of the soldiers aboard a raft, drifting down the river; the frenetic panning sequence as Dersu and Arseniev struggle to reap grass during the windstorm. To define Dersu Uzala as a story about an aboriginal tribesman is to describe humanity through a two-dimensional photograph. Dersu Uzala is an allegory for the environmental toll of civilization, a testament to a profound, enduring friendship, and a heartbreaking portrait of aging and obsolescence.”

-Acquarello, Strictly Film School

My thoughts: Dersu Uzala has a much different feel and pace than Kurosawa’s other films. It is long, contemplative and primal. I couldn’t help but like the character of Dersu. This is one of the best “buddy” movies I’ve seen.