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1
00:01:53,351 --> 00:01:55,369
I'm writing you this letter from a distant land.
2
00:01:55,904 --> 00:01:57,414
Its name is Siberia.
3
00:01:58,050 --> 00:02:02,099
For most of us, that name suggests
nothing but a frozen devil's island -
4
00:02:02,500 --> 00:02:07,379
and for the czarist general Andreyevich,
it was the biggest vacant lot in the world.
5
00:02:08,328 --> 00:02:12,594
Fortunately, there are more things
on heaven and earth than any general...
6
00:02:12,594 --> 00:02:14,891
Siberian or not, has ever dreamed of.
7
00:02:18,627 --> 00:02:22,959
As I write, I let my eye stray along
the edge of a grove of birch trees,
8
00:02:22,959 --> 00:02:30,091
and I remember that in Russian,
their name is a word of love: beryozca.
9
00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:39,897
This might be autumn in Yorkshire
or Connecticut...
10
00:02:40,374 --> 00:02:44,500
if it weren't for these telegraph workers,
booted like Mikhail Strogoff,
11
00:02:44,500 --> 00:02:47,447
going through the motions of shoemakers
at the altitude of tightrope walkers.
12
00:02:47,993 --> 00:02:50,333
they convince you that you're
looking at Siberia,
13
00:02:50,463 --> 00:02:53,474
and it's not just the local color:
the boots, the fur caps...
14
00:02:53,531 --> 00:02:56,068
and the peppermint collars
around their horses' necks.
15
00:02:56,154 --> 00:02:59,452
It's the realization, for example,
that if one of these
16
00:02:59,511 --> 00:03:03,883
climbing Cossacks absentmindedly
reeled in his line
17
00:03:03,883 --> 00:03:06,945
he'd find himself holding a ball
of wire 4800 miles long.
18
00:03:07,328 --> 00:03:11,313
This gash in the forest means the city
has gone by like a wild animal;
19
00:03:11,348 --> 00:03:15,348
follow the wrong trail and you may
come to a bear or a tiger,
20
00:03:15,807 --> 00:03:19,015
follow the right one and
you'll come to a city.
21
00:03:20,192 --> 00:03:22,521
Angarsk, 180 miles from the railroad.
22
00:03:22,558 --> 00:03:25,177
The city was planned in 1947,
23
00:03:25,750 --> 00:03:28,068
but it took four years to cut a path
through the forest,
24
00:03:28,144 --> 00:03:31,093
yard by yard, to reach
the Trans-Siberian.
25
00:03:32,229 --> 00:03:34,059
The foundation stone was laid in 1951.
26
00:03:34,351 --> 00:03:35,719
Today it has 100,000 inhabitants,
27
00:03:36,273 --> 00:03:38,671
including the 35,000 children born
during construction,
28
00:03:39,427 --> 00:03:41,647
natives of the city
which didn't yet exist.
29
00:04:10,154 --> 00:04:11,942
When you've left the last house
behind you though,
30
00:04:11,997 --> 00:04:15,171
you're back in the Stone
Age forest: the taiga.
31
00:04:27,470 --> 00:04:29,661
I'm writing you this letter from
the edge of the world.
32
00:04:29,808 --> 00:04:32,796
According to a Siberian proverb,
the forest was made by the devil.
33
00:04:33,317 --> 00:04:34,894
The devil did a good job;
34
00:04:35,117 --> 00:04:38,084
his forest is as big as the United
States of America.
35
00:04:38,618 --> 00:04:41,579
But maybe the devil made
the United States too.
36
00:04:42,836 --> 00:04:47,403
When he's not busy making forests
or states,the devil steals peoples' souls
37
00:04:48,105 --> 00:04:51,452
or at least that was how the Siberians
regarded death for many centuries.
38
00:04:52,545 --> 00:04:55,225
In this frozen ground, corpses never rot.
39
00:04:55,593 --> 00:04:57,978
In these graves, which rest on
foundations of ice,
40
00:04:58,728 --> 00:05:01,992
life and death are separated by nothing
more substantial than a breath of air.
41
00:05:04,011 --> 00:05:06,920
Bring back the breath and the
body is ready to live again,
42
00:05:07,790 --> 00:05:11,056
to come back and share in the slow chilly
existence of the wooden villages,
43
00:05:11,495 --> 00:05:14,627
rounding up stray horses,
building snowplows...
44
00:05:14,627 --> 00:05:17,703
or leading herds on their pilgrimage
to milder pastures.
45
00:06:13,477 --> 00:06:15,768
This morning I saw a kolkhoz of ducks.
46
00:06:16,734 --> 00:06:19,534
The duck is collectivistic by nature.
47
00:06:19,602 --> 00:06:20,963
There are no kulaks among ducks.
48
00:06:21,526 --> 00:06:26,308
It was a cold morning, and out of
sympathy for the cameraman,
49
00:06:26,308 --> 00:06:28,360
and to promote friendship
between peoples,
50
00:06:28,765 --> 00:06:31,657
they gladly gave an exhibition of naval
maneuvers on the freezing water,
51
00:06:31,679 --> 00:06:33,313
at the risk of being trapped in the ice.
52
00:06:34,681 --> 00:06:40,022
Which was the sad fate of a bigger,
more famous...
53
00:06:40,186 --> 00:06:42,792
and much rarer animal in this same
part of the world: the mammoth.
54
00:06:46,922 --> 00:06:49,249
The mammoth elephants of old Siberia
55
00:06:49,249 --> 00:06:51,653
Dreamt of a holiday in Iberia
56
00:06:51,690 --> 00:06:52,798
Fleeing the Ukase and the Knout
57
00:06:52,798 --> 00:06:53,931
Quite a few got lost en route
58
00:06:53,931 --> 00:06:56,565
Thirty centuries later
we had to dig them out.
59
00:06:59,667 --> 00:07:03,742
Oddly enough, the only animal which
the Siberians and the Chinese...
60
00:07:03,742 --> 00:07:07,313
could conceive to be related to the
mammoth was the mole.
61
00:07:07,851 --> 00:07:10,391
They were convinced that he was
one of the giant variety -
62
00:07:10,539 --> 00:07:13,966
digging huge tunnels and humping
the earth with his forehead.
63
00:07:15,367 --> 00:07:19,557
That imposing animal's weak spot was
his extreme sensibility to sunshine.
64
00:07:20,168 --> 00:07:22,981
If he was struck by a single ray
of light, he died, instantly.
65
00:07:23,218 --> 00:07:26,130
And the proof of this, said the Chinese
- who were strong on logic -
66
00:07:26,559 --> 00:07:30,943
was that whenever you met a mammoth
in the open, it was dead.
67
00:07:31,408 --> 00:07:34,179
Hence the Chinese word
for mammoth: chu-mou,
68
00:07:34,179 --> 00:07:36,335
which means 'mother of mice'.
69
00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:54,004
For Westerners the mammoth
raised other problems.
70
00:07:54,947 --> 00:07:56,348
They knew what he looked like.
71
00:07:56,547 --> 00:08:00,031
He'd had his portrait painted by some of
the most popular artists of prehistoric times.
72
00:08:04,973 --> 00:08:07,645
His publicity agent was Father Breuil.
73
00:08:07,980 --> 00:08:12,404
And anyway, mammoths had always been
on good terms with the church:
74
00:08:12,860 --> 00:08:14,531
a mammoth's tooth attributed
to St. Christophorus,
75
00:08:14,531 --> 00:08:16,922
was worshipped in Valencia...
76
00:08:16,922 --> 00:08:22,231
and as late as 1789 a mammoth's
thigh bone...
77
00:08:22,381 --> 00:08:26,535
was still carried in the Saints
Day procession.
78
00:08:26,848 --> 00:08:29,790
When the first mammoths were
discovered in the 18th century,
79
00:08:30,222 --> 00:08:32,385
the effect on public opinion
was unspectacular.
80
00:08:32,955 --> 00:08:35,822
It wasn't until 1900 that the mammoth
became wildly fashionable,
81
00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:39,458
after hardy pioneers had made
forays into the Siberian wasteland...
82
00:08:39,965 --> 00:08:43,008
and brought back quick-frozen
mammoths in the flesh.
83
00:08:49,592 --> 00:08:51,747
Men of science in that
rugged clime
84
00:08:51,818 --> 00:08:54,071
Had to be sturdy and
still in their prime
85
00:08:54,090 --> 00:08:55,306
They had to speak Yakut
loud and clear
86
00:08:55,416 --> 00:08:56,274
They had to banish all
doubt and fear
87
00:08:56,957 --> 00:08:58,725
In order to bring back
a mammoth by the ear.
88
00:09:07,390 --> 00:09:10,303
Mammoths generally appeared
after a landslide.
89
00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:14,925
By the time an expedition got there,
90
00:09:14,961 --> 00:09:16,964
it might have sunk back
into the ground again.
91
00:09:17,083 --> 00:09:19,406
Or been eaten by wild animals.
92
00:09:26,593 --> 00:09:29,123
Several skeletons were found however,
93
00:09:29,368 --> 00:09:31,268
and even some well preserved meat.
94
00:09:48,529 --> 00:09:50,494
Between 1707 and 1908...
95
00:09:50,495 --> 00:09:53,973
18 mammoths and 6 frozen rhinoceroses
were found.
96
00:09:54,171 --> 00:09:57,001
It was in the faint hope of bringing
back at least an incisor...
97
00:09:57,013 --> 00:09:59,751
that we made the trek to the
nearest diggings,
98
00:09:59,897 --> 00:10:02,833
on the banks of the great
Siberian river: the Lena.
99
00:10:26,281 --> 00:10:28,240
L(i)ena, S(i)ena:
100
00:10:29,054 --> 00:10:33,015
five times as long as the Seine,
and fifty times as wide...
101
00:10:33,085 --> 00:10:36,625
the Lena, in Russian, is kind enough
to rhyme with our French river in Latin.
102
00:10:38,707 --> 00:10:41,078
So just picture to yourselves
a huge lazy Seine,
103
00:10:41,947 --> 00:10:44,397
like an assembly line running
backwards,
104
00:10:45,092 --> 00:10:48,575
gradually coming to pieces at each
new dollhouse settlement,
105
00:10:49,339 --> 00:10:51,539
until it reaches its destination
somewhere up north,
106
00:10:51,879 --> 00:10:52,899
broken down into its component parts...
and spread out over an estuary 120 miles wide.
107
00:10:56,955 --> 00:10:58,768
It's the only highway in this
land without highways,
108
00:10:59,279 --> 00:11:01,760
it's Main Street in the Siberian village,
it's the road everybody uses.
109
00:11:02,222 --> 00:11:04,105
And by the side of the road,asleep under
tarpaulins, waiting for transportation,
110
00:11:04,595 --> 00:11:08,355
there are city buses,
bulldozers, farm machinery,
111
00:11:08,483 --> 00:11:10,772
statues of Lenin for culture parks,
112
00:11:11,133 --> 00:11:14,803
rocket mock-ups for planetariums,
imitation jeeps, and genuine Pobiedas.
113
00:11:23,242 --> 00:11:25,332
Not to mention the crates of furs
from various animals,
114
00:11:25,756 --> 00:11:28,648
such as the sable, a nasty little
beast that will make you like furs,
115
00:11:29,488 --> 00:11:32,303
or the arctic fox, a sweet little thing
that would make you prefer nylon.
116
00:11:33,021 --> 00:11:35,058
Fox ! Lissa Patrikaievna
117
00:11:35,271 --> 00:11:37,427
My beautiful fox
118
00:11:41,438 --> 00:11:43,642
Little sister fox
119
00:11:45,813 --> 00:11:49,509
Princess most wise
120
00:11:49,938 --> 00:11:54,476
What was the use of creeping
into the Ark
121
00:11:54,729 --> 00:11:59,849
Since you’ll end up as the collar
of the captain’s coat.
122
00:12:01,896 --> 00:12:06,139
Eagle, oh eagle
123
00:12:06,396 --> 00:12:11,765
When you walk,
we see your socks
124
00:12:13,729 --> 00:12:17,889
You fill the goats with terror
125
00:12:19,313 --> 00:12:20,971
And yet they’re…
126
00:12:23,313 --> 00:12:25,019
So why are you always crying out
127
00:12:32,688 --> 00:12:34,549
I'm writing you this letter from
the land of childhood;
128
00:12:35,819 --> 00:12:39,083
between the ages of five and ten
this is where we were chased by wolves,
129
00:12:39,641 --> 00:12:41,346
blinded by Tartars,
130
00:12:41,719 --> 00:12:44,213
and carried away on the Trans-Siberian Express
with our pistols and our jewelry.
131
00:12:44,472 --> 00:12:46,296
The Trans-Siberian is the longest
railway in the world.
132
00:12:46,431 --> 00:12:48,708
It has carried away Anton Chekhov,
Cendrars, and Gatti .
133
00:12:49,409 --> 00:12:51,113
I felt obliged to gather them
all together here,
134
00:12:51,179 --> 00:12:55,682
like sacred cows under a
canopy of wild ducks,
135
00:12:55,833 --> 00:12:58,266
to watch romanticism plus
electrification go by.
136
00:13:15,255 --> 00:13:21,134
It's 7 a.m. in Irkutsk, 6 p.m
in mexico and midnight in Paris.
137
00:13:21,965 --> 00:13:23,386
You're asleep
138
00:13:23,983 --> 00:13:26,095
I'm looking at the Irkutsk dam,
139
00:13:26,849 --> 00:13:29,482
sitting on its own reflection like
a station in outer space.
140
00:13:38,379 --> 00:13:40,173
The morning shift goes
to work on the dam...
141
00:13:40,480 --> 00:13:42,738
when the third shift is
coming off at Renault.
142
00:13:43,982 --> 00:13:46,231
Big pressure cookers made out
of Erector Sets loom through the fog...
143
00:13:46,306 --> 00:13:47,589
not yet moving.
144
00:13:48,539 --> 00:13:50,350
Here, across the river Angara,
145
00:13:50,744 --> 00:13:53,478
on the very spot where Mikhail Strogoff
was surrounded by fire,
146
00:13:54,166 --> 00:13:56,963
they're building the biggest power
plant in Southern Siberia.
147
00:13:59,731 --> 00:14:01,758
While Angara fishermen are already
catching their first fish,
148
00:14:02,209 --> 00:14:05,251
Seine fishermen have already
caught ten in their dreams.
149
00:14:05,460 --> 00:14:10,608
It’s one o’clock in Malta,
noon in New Zealand.
150
00:14:11,544 --> 00:14:14,550
And now here's the shot I've been waiting for,
the shot you've all been waiting for,
151
00:14:14,464 --> 00:14:16,896
the shot no worthwhile film about a country
in the process of transformation...
152
00:14:17,519 --> 00:14:19,694
could possibly leave out:
The contrast between the old and the new.
153
00:14:19,940 --> 00:14:21,731
On my right: the heavy duty
truck: 40 tons.
154
00:14:22,354 --> 00:14:23,956
On my left: the telega,
240 pounds.
155
00:14:24,401 --> 00:14:26,454
The past and the future,
tradition and progress,
156
00:14:26,527 --> 00:14:28,588
the Tiber and the Orontes,
Philomena and Chloe,
157
00:14:29,228 --> 00:14:31,551
take a good look because I won't
show them to you again.
158
00:14:33,547 --> 00:14:35,388
It's one minute past seven.
159
00:14:36,647 --> 00:14:39,858
A truck from Irkutsk makes the pontoons
bob under the floating bridge,
160
00:14:40,231 --> 00:14:45,133
and at the same instant a lorry honking its horn rouses
two hundred eleven people out of a sound sleep in Dijon.
161
00:14:45,968 --> 00:14:47,733
Four turbines are already functioning.
162
00:14:48,127 --> 00:14:50,029
But the problem is not just
to light Irkutsk;
163
00:14:50,724 --> 00:14:53,321
the problem is to electrify
a whole district,
164
00:14:53,489 --> 00:14:56,031
which will constitute the base of operations
for the conquest of those frozen wastes.
165
00:14:56,613 --> 00:14:59,026
This is where everything begins:
166
00:14:58,844 --> 00:15:01,852
the soil reclamation program,
the increase in natural resources,
167
00:15:01,889 --> 00:15:03,233
and the resulting rise in the standard of living -
168
00:15:03,792 --> 00:15:06,534
but also the spiritual acquisitions that
come after material transformations,
169
00:15:06,682 --> 00:15:08,160
the way nuts come after bolts:
170
00:15:08,694 --> 00:15:12,970
curiosity, contemplation, extended
horizons… and culture.
171
00:15:16,394 --> 00:15:18,066
It's two minutes past seven.
172
00:15:18,267 --> 00:15:19,739
The pressure cookers start to move.
173
00:15:20,442 --> 00:15:23,172
They're real monsters, 100 feet tall.
174
00:15:24,143 --> 00:15:26,829
And naturally there's a girl to go
with each monster.
175
00:15:27,721 --> 00:15:29,917
She orders him around in
monster language,
176
00:15:30,030 --> 00:15:31,577
and the monster obeys.
177
00:15:34,884 --> 00:15:39,215
It's easy to imagine a romance between
the girl on the ground... and the man in the crane.
178
00:15:44,206 --> 00:15:46,256
It would be nice to be a
crane driver in Irkutsk,
179
00:15:46,322 --> 00:15:52,299
to give your girlfriend a box of
birthday chocolates,
180
00:15:52,403 --> 00:15:53,886
as high as a house on the
end of your hook.
181
00:15:55,169 --> 00:15:56,718
Now the dam site comes to life.
182
00:15:56,718 --> 00:15:58,124
Cars wend their way
between the cranes...
183
00:15:58,124 --> 00:16:00,482
like cats playing hide and seek
in a railway depot.
184
00:16:01,077 --> 00:16:05,330
Overhead the cranes stand aloof -
alternately courteous and curious with one another,
185
00:16:05,539 --> 00:16:06,827
like a herd of dinosaurs.
186
00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:10,345
And the whole dam becomes a spectacular display,
combining a Ferris wheel and a naval battle,
187
00:16:10,345 --> 00:16:12,556
and the Ville d'Este, and a pinball machine.
188
00:18:06,468 --> 00:18:07,575
Back to the taiga.
189
00:18:09,545 --> 00:18:11,769
The rationalistic aspect of Siberia,
190
00:18:11,873 --> 00:18:14,243
is that a hiker walking in
a straight line...
191
00:18:14,330 --> 00:18:16,426
is always sure to get
lost in the forest.
192
00:18:19,132 --> 00:18:21,138
If he walks north long enough,
193
00:18:21,255 --> 00:18:27,995
his reward will be 11 million square
kilometers of tundra and ice floe
194
00:18:27,927 --> 00:18:29,506
that have to be conquered
and transformed.
195
00:18:29,118 --> 00:18:31,208
But first they have to be studied.
196
00:18:31,609 --> 00:18:34,024
That's the job of Vladmir Malenkov...
197
00:18:34,024 --> 00:18:36,572
head of the Low Temperature
Institute at Yakutskt.
198
00:18:36,989 --> 00:18:41,191
In this climate, winter temperatures
can drop to -60° C
199
00:18:41,606 --> 00:18:46,161
But it's not for sentimental reasons
that Vladimir has an electric fan on his desk;
200
00:18:46,778 --> 00:18:49,223
in summer they climb +40° C.
201
00:18:49,394 --> 00:18:52,684
In Siberia the weather jolts you...
- so do the roads,
202
00:18:52,813 --> 00:18:56,197
but cars are insanity when you've
got a handy conveyance...
203
00:18:56,197 --> 00:18:59,849
that suits the terrain to perfection:
the reindeer.
204
00:19:03,839 --> 00:19:06,502
The entire economy of the Arctic peoples
is based upon the reindeer.
205
00:19:07,331 --> 00:19:09,280
It serves as wheat, flax, rowboat,
206
00:19:09,702 --> 00:19:13,108
Christmas tree, medicine chest, and sacristan,
all rolled into one.
207
00:19:13,745 --> 00:19:15,750
When gelded it serves
as a horse,
208
00:19:15,805 --> 00:19:18,104
and is allowed to keep its beautiful
satiny antlers,
209
00:19:18,104 --> 00:19:20,653
whereas the foolish males
cut theirs to ribbons.
210
00:19:23,313 --> 00:19:27,520
Oh reindeer, sweet and just
211
00:19:28,438 --> 00:19:31,933
Friend of the birds and owls
212
00:19:32,188 --> 00:19:38,634
They nest in your branches
213
00:19:39,729 --> 00:19:45,063
Happy he who has ideas in his head
214
00:19:45,313 --> 00:19:51,179
Happier still, he who has birds
215
00:19:52,896 --> 00:19:57,020
Brown reindeer
216
00:19:58,354 --> 00:20:04,303
on a brown plain
217
00:20:04,521 --> 00:20:08,100
Like an old spot of blood
on dead leaves
218
00:20:08,313 --> 00:20:13,135
White reindeer
219
00:20:13,354 --> 00:20:16,636
on white snow
220
00:20:16,854 --> 00:20:23,680
Like the beloved’s silence
221
00:20:23,896 --> 00:20:28,304
in the midst of silence
222
00:20:28,649 --> 00:20:30,844
You could go on praising reindeer forever.
223
00:20:31,765 --> 00:20:32,800
With those velvet handlebars...
224
00:20:32,865 --> 00:20:35,323
and the way they have of kicking themselves
along with their heels
225
00:20:35,323 --> 00:20:38,751
they're the closest thing to a bicycle
that God ever created.
226
00:20:39,317 --> 00:20:42,906
If I had the money, I'd shoot a spot
commercial in their honor,
227
00:20:43,581 --> 00:20:46,592
and I'd run it between two showings...
or better still between two reels.
228
00:20:46,592 --> 00:20:48,194
The picture would break off suddenly,
229
00:20:48,194 --> 00:20:50,116
and you'd see something like this:
230
00:20:50,438 --> 00:20:54,375
(United Productions of Siberia Presents)
231
00:20:55,822 --> 00:20:57,870
"We interrupt this film not to sell you
some new miracle product,
232
00:20:58,767 --> 00:21:09,697
but to remind you of an ancient irreplaceable
product to end all products: reindeer.
233
00:21:11,764 --> 00:21:15,106
They make fine pets;
they're less of a nuisance than dogs,
234
00:21:15,106 --> 00:21:17,596
less intimidating than cats,
less insidious than fleas.
235
00:21:18,394 --> 00:21:19,810
Reindeer are all these things and more.
236
00:21:19,810 --> 00:21:23,104
Are you dissatisfied with your car?
Reindeer will transport you.
237
00:21:23,104 --> 00:21:26,608
Are you dissatisfied with your tailor?
Reindeer will dress you.
238
00:21:27,101 --> 00:21:30,181
Are you dissatisfied with your doctor?
Reindeer will look after your health.
239
00:21:30,181 --> 00:21:34,364
Are you dissatisfied with your interior?
Reindeer will redecorate you.
240
00:21:34,364 --> 00:21:37,596
Are you dissatisfied with your destiny?
Reindeer will bring you luck.
241
00:21:37,596 --> 00:21:40,365
And don't forget that for young
and for old alike,
242
00:21:40,365 --> 00:21:43,982
reindeer are wholesome food,
chock full of life giving chlorophyll.
243
00:21:45,371 --> 00:21:47,360
Housewives of the world, wherever
you may be,
244
00:21:47,360 --> 00:21:51,710
in Moscow, Rome, New York,
Peking or Paris,
245
00:21:55,618 --> 00:21:58,401
beware of imitations such as moose, or elk.
246
00:21:58,793 --> 00:22:03,284
Always ask for genuine reindeer."
247
00:22:10,485 --> 00:22:14,501
We followed the reindeer
to the Evenks' camp.
248
00:22:14,981 --> 00:22:18,288
Evenks, as you all know, are Tunguses.
249
00:22:19,132 --> 00:22:21,844
Reindeer and Tunguses have
always been associated,
250
00:22:21,946 --> 00:22:26,765
but it's a question whether Tunguses like
reindeer because they're useful,
251
00:22:27,078 --> 00:22:29,744
or whether reindeer like Tunguses
because they're light.
252
00:22:30,182 --> 00:22:32,850
For centuries Tunguses and reindeer
were nomads together.
253
00:22:32,886 --> 00:22:34,492
But now all that's changed.
254
00:22:34,905 --> 00:22:38,602
With a wisdom that would have done credit
to King Solomon, they've been assigned home bases.
255
00:22:38,602 --> 00:22:41,279
They may not show up there
for years on end,
256
00:22:41,279 --> 00:22:44,485
but they've nevertheless graduated from the
dubious category of 'nomads,'
257
00:22:44,485 --> 00:22:47,663
into the respectable one of
householders on the move.'
258
00:22:55,332 --> 00:22:58,223
Having presented the head of the
family with a plastic wallet,
259
00:22:58,940 --> 00:23:02,256
a gift which he appreciated all the more...
260
00:23:02,256 --> 00:23:03,758
as the Arctic world suffers from a
serious lack of Woolworth's stores,
261
00:23:03,758 --> 00:23:07,550
we were treated to the ritual offering of
freshly sawed off reindeer antlers.
262
00:23:15,682 --> 00:23:16,811
But don't waste your pity -
263
00:23:16,811 --> 00:23:19,536
the operation hurts about as much
as trimming fingernails.
264
00:23:19,536 --> 00:23:22,638
At least that's what we were told
by the grandfather in Tungus,
265
00:23:22,638 --> 00:23:24,467
by the father in bad Russian,
266
00:23:24,467 --> 00:23:26,574
and by the little boy in
excellent Russian.
267
00:23:27,195 --> 00:23:30,324
For these children, who have inherited their
ancestors bear hunting instincts,
268
00:23:30,324 --> 00:23:32,840
go to school, and learn trades.
269
00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:35,867
This may be a bad sign for the
future of bear hunting,
270
00:23:35,867 --> 00:23:38,233
as 103 year old grandfather
Innokenti says,
271
00:23:38,715 --> 00:23:40,384
"Bear hunting is for youngsters.
272
00:23:40,384 --> 00:23:43,156
When you're over eighty it
begins to be dangerous,
273
00:23:43,156 --> 00:23:44,940
because in the days when
Innokenti hunted Mishka
274
00:23:44,940 --> 00:23:47,555
he was armed with a spear, and nothing else.
275
00:23:47,958 --> 00:23:49,566
- the name these people give to every bear,
as if there were only one -
276
00:23:49,566 --> 00:23:53,943
But Innokenti killed that single
bear eighty-five times over.
277
00:24:03,216 --> 00:24:06,029
As for Mishka himself,
I met him in Yakutsk.
278
00:24:06,130 --> 00:24:08,451
Actually, his name was Ushatik,
279
00:24:08,452 --> 00:24:10,176
which means "Little Ears."
280
00:24:10,208 --> 00:24:11,493
Beneath the somewhat
moth-eaten exterior,
281
00:24:11,493 --> 00:24:14,248
due to an overturned samovar
when he was little,
282
00:24:14,248 --> 00:24:17,293
he was a jovial, rather talkative, bear.
283
00:24:18,338 --> 00:24:21,148
Boris Sergeivich found him in
the Taiga as a baby,
284
00:24:21,506 --> 00:24:23,563
and he'd been a member of the
family ever since;
285
00:24:23,989 --> 00:24:25,353
he was "cousin bear."
286
00:24:30,257 --> 00:24:32,668
After a breakfast of red berries,
287
00:24:33,025 --> 00:24:35,733
Ushatik the bear took his morning
walk through Yakutsk.
288
00:24:36,002 --> 00:24:37,610
We went with him.
289
00:24:38,219 --> 00:24:40,877
Since you can never tell how a
bear will react to a camera,
290
00:24:40,877 --> 00:24:42,741
we were offered the protection
of an armed policeman.
291
00:24:42,741 --> 00:24:45,507
But since we're much more frightened
of policemen than we are of bears...
292
00:24:45,507 --> 00:24:47,317
we politely declined.
293
00:24:47,929 --> 00:24:51,122
On our way we attracted the attention
of a group of Pioneers,
294
00:24:51,122 --> 00:24:52,547
who were thrilled to meet
a film crew,
295
00:24:52,547 --> 00:24:53,998
and even more so when they found
out that we were French.
296
00:24:54,979 --> 00:24:58,004
Here we met with all the ingredients of
the Soviet citizens' incredible,
297
00:24:58,108 --> 00:24:59,957
rather touching, admiration
for our country:
298
00:25:00,317 --> 00:25:02,417
one quarter French Revolution,
one quarter Zola's novels,
299
00:25:02,417 --> 00:25:05,566
one quarter Comédie-Française,
one quarter secret passion for Gay Paris,
300
00:25:05,566 --> 00:25:07,928
and four quarters Yves Montand…
301
00:25:24,729 --> 00:25:31,970
When Yves Montand’s voice
302
00:25:33,063 --> 00:25:37,305
resounds over the short-wave
303
00:25:39,313 --> 00:25:45,558
the branches of Paris chestnut trees
304
00:25:45,771 --> 00:25:50,677
come and peer into my window.
305
00:25:51,354 --> 00:25:56,766
When our distant friend sings
306
00:25:56,979 --> 00:26:01,435
warmth and joy spread everywhere
307
00:26:02,479 --> 00:26:07,101
and distances shrink to nothing
308
00:26:07,813 --> 00:26:12,511
when our best friend starts to sing.
309
00:26:13,938 --> 00:26:18,429
Lovers revolve in time
310
00:26:18,646 --> 00:26:22,058
to the singer’s voice.
311
00:26:23,563 --> 00:26:26,098
The music extends
312
00:26:26,354 --> 00:26:27,930
the Boulevards of Paris
313
00:26:28,146 --> 00:26:31,511
all the way to the Parks of Moscow.
314
00:26:31,771 --> 00:26:33,892
Kogda poet
315
00:26:34,479 --> 00:26:36,185
Daleki droug
316
00:26:37,146 --> 00:26:41,435
Toptei i radostniei
Stanovitsia vokroug...
317
00:26:41,646 --> 00:26:46,220
Distances shrink to nothing
318
00:26:46,854 --> 00:26:52,260
when my faraway friend starts to sing.
319
00:26:59,475 --> 00:27:03,506
As I listened to this tribute to Yves Montand
I looked around me.
320
00:27:04,375 --> 00:27:07,494
Undeniable energy, enthusiasm,
and the will to work.
321
00:27:08,076 --> 00:27:12,088
A faith that the future will be as bright
as the past was dark.
322
00:27:12,088 --> 00:27:14,876
Huge gaps, and a firm
determination to fill them.
323
00:27:15,666 --> 00:27:19,927
While recording these images of the Yakutsk
capital as objectively as possible,
324
00:27:20,168 --> 00:27:22,621
I frankly wondered whom
they would satisfy.
325
00:27:22,621 --> 00:27:24,988
Because of course you can't describe
the Soviet Union as anything...
326
00:27:24,988 --> 00:27:27,190
but the worker's paradise,
or, as hell on earth.
327
00:27:27,190 --> 00:27:28,088
For example:
328
00:27:28,493 --> 00:27:32,975
"Yakutsk: capital of the Yakutsk
autonomous Soviet socialistic republic
329
00:27:33,128 --> 00:27:34,847
is a modern city,
330
00:27:34,847 --> 00:27:37,874
in which comfortable buses made
available to the population,
331
00:27:38,023 --> 00:27:40,427
share the streets
with powerful ZIMs,
332
00:27:40,427 --> 00:27:42,526
the pride of the Soviet
automobile industry,
333
00:27:42,803 --> 00:27:45,221
in the joyful spirit of
socialist emulation,
334
00:27:45,214 --> 00:27:46,763
happy Soviet workers,
335
00:27:46,763 --> 00:27:50,242
among them this picturesque
denizen of the Arctic reaches,
336
00:27:50,242 --> 00:27:54,084
apply themselves to making Yakutsk
an even better place to live."
337
00:27:54,190 --> 00:27:55,648
Or else:
338
00:27:56,095 --> 00:28:01,152
"Yakutsk is a dark city
with an evil reputation.
339
00:28:01,175 --> 00:28:05,107
The population is crammed into
blood colored buses,
340
00:28:05,364 --> 00:28:07,249
while the members
of the privileged cast
341
00:28:07,249 --> 00:28:08,768
brazenly display the
luxury of their ZIMs
342
00:28:08,768 --> 00:28:10,932
a costly and uncomfortable car at best.
343
00:28:11,545 --> 00:28:13,220
Bending to the task like slaves,
344
00:28:13,232 --> 00:28:15,214
the miserable Soviet workers,
345
00:28:15,266 --> 00:28:18,025
among them this sinister
looking Asiatic,
346
00:28:18,175 --> 00:28:22,194
apply themselves to the primitive
labor of grading with a drag beam."
347
00:28:22,849 --> 00:28:27,893
Or simply: "In Yakutsk, where
modern houses
348
00:28:27,893 --> 00:28:30,058
are gradually replacing
the dark older sections,
349
00:28:30,058 --> 00:28:33,148
a bus less crowded than
its Paris at rush hour
350
00:28:33,261 --> 00:28:35,827
passes a ZIM, an excellent car,
351
00:28:35,827 --> 00:28:37,578
reserved for public utilities departments
352
00:28:38,515 --> 00:28:41,851
With courage and tenacity under extremely
difficult conditions,
353
00:28:41,902 --> 00:28:46,652
Soviet workers, among them this Yakut,
afflicted with an eye disorder,
354
00:28:46,652 --> 00:28:49,781
apply themselves to improving the appearance
of their city, which could certainly use it."
355
00:28:50,105 --> 00:28:52,178
But objectivity isn't the answer either.
356
00:28:52,807 --> 00:28:54,681
It may not distort Siberian realities,
357
00:28:54,681 --> 00:28:57,288
but it does isolate them long
enough to be appraised...
358
00:28:57,324 --> 00:28:59,545
and consequently distorts
them all the same.
359
00:28:59,995 --> 00:29:02,047
What counts is the drive
and the variety.
360
00:29:02,426 --> 00:29:04,203
A walk through the streets
of Yakutsk...
361
00:29:04,464 --> 00:29:05,858
isn't going to make you
understand Siberia.
362
00:29:06,177 --> 00:29:10,245
What you need might be an imaginary
newsreel shot all over Siberia.
363
00:29:10,590 --> 00:29:14,130
I might screen it for you in
the town's spanking new movie theater.
364
00:29:14,264 --> 00:29:16,985
And the commentary would be made
up of those Siberian expressions...
365
00:29:16,985 --> 00:29:18,572
that are already
pictures in themselves.
366
00:29:23,304 --> 00:29:26,372
"The season of dying water" is winter.
367
00:29:26,529 --> 00:29:30,179
"The ghost of the winter hare" is snow,
with its foolhardy flakes.
368
00:29:30,179 --> 00:29:33,676
"The grey ox that drank all the
water in the valley" is the frost,
369
00:29:33,676 --> 00:29:36,913
which leaves trapped
angry boats behind it.
370
00:29:38,267 --> 00:29:40,975
My newsreel would begin with
these images of winter...
371
00:29:41,456 --> 00:29:44,081
a long white night that
lasts half the year.
372
00:29:51,133 --> 00:29:54,625
A weather balloon would take you
high over the Verkhoyansk mountains,
373
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:59,563
the coldest region on earth,
with a temperature of -69° C,
374
00:29:59,563 --> 00:30:01,133
and a population of eight thousand.
375
00:30:05,196 --> 00:30:09,244
You'd see huge caterpillars carved out
of pebbles by gold mining dredges.
376
00:30:09,244 --> 00:30:13,077
You'd see silver birches that look
like owls' tracks in the snow.
377
00:30:13,077 --> 00:30:16,811
And then, as if someone had gathered
up the forest in a giant sheaf,
378
00:30:16,811 --> 00:30:20,310
trunk against trunk, and sheared
it off with cheese wire,
379
00:30:20,310 --> 00:30:23,546
you'd see Yakutsk planting
its paving stones.
380
00:30:23,807 --> 00:30:27,923
You'd see a topsy-turvy world in which
houses move to their tenants on sleds,
381
00:30:27,923 --> 00:30:32,038
And hunters take live animals into
the forest and set them free.
382
00:30:45,816 --> 00:30:49,890
A year from now the hunter of the streams
will kill the beaver he's fondling today.
383
00:30:49,890 --> 00:30:52,520
A year ago the trapper of the
tundra was playing
384
00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:54,635
with the silver fox that he's going to snare.
385
00:30:55,494 --> 00:30:59,166
There's not much time to be sentimental
over animals whose furs are a natural resource.
386
00:30:59,166 --> 00:31:01,303
For centuries past, the
country's only one.
387
00:31:02,703 --> 00:31:04,411
Actually there were others though.
388
00:31:04,411 --> 00:31:08,506
Siberia has turned out to have been a poor
man sleeping on a mattress stuffed with gold.
389
00:31:08,610 --> 00:31:11,171
The problem was how to get at the mattress.
390
00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:15,856
And now for the Siberian version of
Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend:
391
00:31:15,856 --> 00:31:20,485
Larissa Popugayeva is a parachute jumping geologist
who was dropped into the middle of the taiga,
392
00:31:20,485 --> 00:31:24,148
in the spring of 1954, to look for a blue layer.
393
00:31:24,148 --> 00:31:27,428
After four months spent enduring
the unendurable,
394
00:31:27,428 --> 00:31:31,475
she made her strike,
and they wound up with diamonds.
395
00:31:31,407 --> 00:31:34,152
The deposit is richer than
any in South Africa.
396
00:31:36,056 --> 00:31:39,178
To look for gold they drown the land.
397
00:31:40,267 --> 00:31:43,443
Before the dredges scoop up
the ore and carry it away,
398
00:31:43,652 --> 00:31:46,247
a kind of firemen,
dressed like Breton fishermen
399
00:31:46,247 --> 00:31:48,266
let fly at the soil with hoses.
400
00:31:48,429 --> 00:31:51,128
The real firemen are
dressed like aviators.
401
00:31:55,966 --> 00:31:58,246
Because when there's a fire in Siberia
402
00:31:58,559 --> 00:32:00,925
it's most likely to be the forest, that
other great natural resource that's burning up.
403
00:32:01,821 --> 00:32:03,620
And when there's not enough
rain to put it out
404
00:32:03,620 --> 00:32:04,739
they make it rain firemen.
405
00:32:36,913 --> 00:32:38,759
To go from the forest
to the factory,
406
00:32:38,759 --> 00:32:41,864
to go to the market, to school,
or on a holiday,
407
00:32:42,655 --> 00:32:44,495
Siberians always take an airplane.
408
00:32:45,775 --> 00:32:48,858
With no competition from
trucks or trains,
409
00:32:48,858 --> 00:32:50,133
these planes have
lost all their glamour.
410
00:32:50,540 --> 00:32:52,390
They're like women in a
world without men.
411
00:32:53,534 --> 00:32:54,590
They're just flying buses.
412
00:32:54,893 --> 00:32:57,880
Except that they set you down
in out of the way places...
413
00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:02,031
where you're advised to dress like
a bear if you want to pass unnoticed.
414
00:33:37,354 --> 00:33:39,679
And then I'd show you the Yakuts.
415
00:33:40,474 --> 00:33:42,926
Now don't get the idea they're distant
cousins of Nanook of the North.
416
00:33:43,635 --> 00:33:47,719
They've got their artists, and surgeons,
their writers and bards.
417
00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:51,461
In very ancient times the wise Eley
418
00:33:51,461 --> 00:33:53,184
and the daughter of the mighty Omogoï
419
00:33:53,522 --> 00:33:55,689
joined in matrimony to produce
the first Yakut.
420
00:33:58,485 --> 00:34:01,373
But most of all I'd show you
the spring festivals,
421
00:34:01,784 --> 00:34:04,533
when the dancers whirl, the curdled
mare's milk flows freely,
422
00:34:04,707 --> 00:34:07,089
and the old shamanic poems
are revived:
423
00:34:17,515 --> 00:34:21,800
Come forth magic bull of the
universe and answer,
424
00:34:22,819 --> 00:34:27,344
O spirits of the sun, who live
on the seven southern hills,
425
00:34:27,898 --> 00:34:30,973
O jealous mothers of light,
426
00:34:31,708 --> 00:34:36,328
Let your three shadows
stand tall and straight,
427
00:34:36,328 --> 00:34:38,980
And thou in the west
on thy mountaintop,
428
00:34:38,668 --> 00:34:40,465
O Lord my father,
429
00:34:40,611 --> 00:34:43,144
With thy dreadful strength,
thy powerful neck,
430
00:34:43,276 --> 00:34:44,573
Come forth with me.
431
00:34:53,873 --> 00:34:56,570
I'd show you the whirling dervishes
of the spring thaw,
432
00:34:57,794 --> 00:35:00,618
and the routed armies of winter
retreating under insults,
433
00:35:00,943 --> 00:35:04,020
while the whole pagan people
invent the resurrection.
434
00:35:04,593 --> 00:35:08,397
I'd show you reindeer coming down to
meet the rising tide of warmth.
435
00:35:08,967 --> 00:35:11,027
And further north, the last days of winter,
436
00:35:11,092 --> 00:35:15,486
when the reindeer shows an athletic
streak I'd forgotten to mention earlier.
437
00:35:53,420 --> 00:35:56,028
And my imaginary newsreel
would end here,
438
00:35:56,028 --> 00:35:58,409
with this Kentucky Derby in the
looking-glass world
439
00:35:58,409 --> 00:36:01,526
- for which there are no losers -
everybody wins a prize.
440
00:36:01,526 --> 00:36:05,464
The most treasured prize of all
undoubtedly being the return of summer,
441
00:36:05,890 --> 00:36:08,080
and its companion: color.
442
00:36:24,936 --> 00:36:26,931
Now we can go back to Yakutsk,
443
00:36:27,824 --> 00:36:31,883
and there, in the ruthless light of the
wintry climate that has forged this country,
444
00:36:32,107 --> 00:36:34,411
that has laid so many pitfalls and
landmines for its people,
445
00:36:34,411 --> 00:36:37,473
we might better realize what a victory even
the simplest achievements represent:
446
00:36:37,980 --> 00:36:42,016
houses protected from the cold,
schools, libraries,
447
00:36:42,510 --> 00:36:46,708
and all the other things, which they point
out to us so proudly we can't help smiling.
448
00:36:46,850 --> 00:36:50,301
Yet, our irony may be more naive
than their enthusiasm.
449
00:37:04,686 --> 00:37:07,410
Twenty years ago, Grigory
Savine is thinking,
450
00:37:08,163 --> 00:37:10,427
I fought a bear right here where
we're building now.
451
00:37:11,560 --> 00:37:16,443
Every Russian knows the story of the bear
that helped the peasant build his house.
452
00:37:17,319 --> 00:37:20,602
In the end the bear turns out to be a
well-bred Stakhanovite bear,
453
00:37:20,820 --> 00:37:22,628
who gives the whole village
a helping hand,
454
00:37:22,629 --> 00:37:24,546
like in the song by Charles Trenet
455
00:37:24,764 --> 00:37:26,898
and who wipes his feet before
he goes into the isba.
456
00:37:28,036 --> 00:37:30,169
The tradition must have died
out though,
457
00:37:30,169 --> 00:37:32,782
since this is where I came across my
friend Ushatik again,
458
00:37:32,782 --> 00:37:35,658
having a swim in the river.
459
00:37:43,979 --> 00:37:47,309
Bear, bear, little ears
460
00:37:47,938 --> 00:37:51,599
With a belly like a pope’s
461
00:37:52,104 --> 00:37:57,141
You give yourself airs
in your overcoat
462
00:37:57,354 --> 00:38:00,767
But you don’t look happy
463
00:38:02,604 --> 00:38:05,472
You don’t want to go home
464
00:38:06,563 --> 00:38:09,311
You don’t want to come to my house
465
00:38:10,771 --> 00:38:14,219
You don’t want to go to church
466
00:38:14,438 --> 00:38:17,803
You don’t want to go to school
467
00:38:24,396 --> 00:38:26,931
TYou want to walk down the street
468
00:38:27,146 --> 00:38:29,895
Giving candy to the little children.
469
00:38:30,548 --> 00:38:31,940
On the outskirts of Yakutsk,
470
00:38:32,329 --> 00:38:33,436
as we were coming back to town,
471
00:38:33,901 --> 00:38:37,135
an interested audience was watching the
antics of Ushatik the bear.
472
00:38:37,135 --> 00:38:40,214
He'd managed to slip his leash
473
00:38:40,716 --> 00:38:44,857
and was demonstrating his anarchist tendencies
with the shifty quickness of a puppy.
474
00:38:45,331 --> 00:38:47,044
For a moment it even looked
like he was going
475
00:38:47,044 --> 00:38:49,618
to get his paws on Boris Sergeivich's
motorcycle.
476
00:38:50,766 --> 00:38:52,536
Had Ushatik been corrupted by the movies?
477
00:38:52,536 --> 00:38:56,811
Was he going to ride away like
the trained bears in the Moscow circus?
478
00:38:56,804 --> 00:39:00,557
But no, his greediness got the better
of his thirst for freedom
479
00:39:00,828 --> 00:39:02,297
a touching sight.
480
00:39:02,759 --> 00:39:05,294
But let cynics be comforted:
481
00:39:05,783 --> 00:39:09,206
Boris Sergeivich watches over Ushatik
with such fatherly concern because
482
00:39:09,206 --> 00:39:12,520
he's thinking of the day not so
far away when he's going to eat him.
483
00:39:39,074 --> 00:39:41,784
I'm writing you this letter from the
Land of Darkness.
484
00:39:43,506 --> 00:39:45,238
That was the name Marco Polo gave it,
485
00:39:45,578 --> 00:39:48,660
and that was the picture in the minds
of the first conquerors from Muscovy,
486
00:39:48,923 --> 00:39:51,107
who left behind these wooden ostrogs,
487
00:39:51,107 --> 00:39:53,691
like rooks standing on a chessboard
after the kings have died.
488
00:39:54,926 --> 00:39:57,022
Schoolchildren learn how the
emperor of Russia
489
00:39:57,022 --> 00:40:00,013
and the emperor of China fought
over the province of darkness.
490
00:40:00,806 --> 00:40:02,616
Since neither of them knew
the other's language,
491
00:40:02,904 --> 00:40:05,178
the final treaty was drawn up
in Latin by two Jesuit priests,
492
00:40:05,178 --> 00:40:06,841
the only ones who could
understand it.
493
00:40:07,648 --> 00:40:09,882
Christianity got very little out
of that transaction.
494
00:40:10,565 --> 00:40:14,349
One more evil spirit in Siberian
legends named Jesus Christ
495
00:40:14,349 --> 00:40:17,629
is the only trace left by
the interim rule of the popes,
496
00:40:17,629 --> 00:40:19,067
between the shamans and the commissars.
497
00:40:32,368 --> 00:40:35,586
From this point on,
the work of today's builders
498
00:40:35,586 --> 00:40:38,628
runs parallel to the older
themes of Siberian mythology,
499
00:40:39,716 --> 00:40:42,030
and the underground journey
of the black shaman,
500
00:40:42,030 --> 00:40:46,248
the men and women who succeeded in making
stone houses stand upright on the Siberian soil
501
00:40:46,248 --> 00:40:49,179
have made that journey too,
and for the same reason.
502
00:41:03,390 --> 00:41:05,053
I took the shamans journey down
one of the shafts...
503
00:41:05,347 --> 00:41:07,951
at the Low Temperature
Research Institute.
504
00:41:09,256 --> 00:41:12,199
Six Feet below the surface you
come to the ice layer,
505
00:41:12,199 --> 00:41:14,616
and that frozen ground we've
mentioned already.
506
00:41:14,867 --> 00:41:16,746
Beneath that are the caves.
507
00:41:17,422 --> 00:41:20,636
I was expecting machinery,
long tunnels, and lunar landscapes -
508
00:41:21,094 --> 00:41:23,059
but I wasn't expecting flowers.
509
00:41:41,790 --> 00:41:44,227
Preserving flowers until springtime
510
00:41:44,227 --> 00:41:47,903
is merely an attractive sideline
for these technicians.
511
00:41:48,474 --> 00:41:51,763
In their spare time they've invented
a Frigidaire for nostalgia.
512
00:41:56,198 --> 00:41:58,814
But there is more to be gotten
out of this cold mine,
513
00:41:58,814 --> 00:42:00,789
or rather this cold menagerie.
514
00:42:01,552 --> 00:42:03,480
Here the enemy is under lock and key,
515
00:42:03,480 --> 00:42:07,724
he can be studied, manipulated,
and tested to see how he reacts.
516
00:42:08,607 --> 00:42:11,233
All this is done on grocer's
scales in subway corridors
517
00:42:11,233 --> 00:42:13,925
at a constant temperature of -3° C
518
00:42:14,933 --> 00:42:16,228
Apparatus that might have been
borrowed from a physics classroom
519
00:42:16,228 --> 00:42:19,894
provides data on the resistance
of ice to stone and metal.
520
00:42:20,403 --> 00:42:25,035
We see showcases full of frozen
jewels and earrings for a giantess.
521
00:42:25,035 --> 00:42:29,085
We even see André Gide in person,
as well preserved as the flowers.
522
00:42:45,627 --> 00:42:49,174
The walls and ceiling of
the mine are carved out of sand,
523
00:42:49,255 --> 00:42:51,758
solidified by the freezing
temperature, which acts like cement.
524
00:42:51,758 --> 00:42:54,793
But at the slightest touch
they crumble to dust.
525
00:42:55,293 --> 00:42:58,571
Seen from close up, they are
nebulae of seashells -
526
00:42:59,233 --> 00:43:01,297
not so long ago the ocean was here.
527
00:43:01,899 --> 00:43:04,930
However it's the future that makes
the low temperature experts' heads spin.
528
00:43:05,128 --> 00:43:09,843
They believe that man will find hospitality
beneath the surface of this hostile land.
529
00:43:10,499 --> 00:43:12,590
Their laboratory experiments
are the working model...
530
00:43:12,590 --> 00:43:14,808
of an underground universe straight
out of science fiction.
531
00:43:15,704 --> 00:43:17,673
Like all Russians
they've read Jules Verne,
532
00:43:17,906 --> 00:43:20,182
and are getting ready for the journey
to the center of the Earth,
533
00:43:20,182 --> 00:43:21,974
just as their colleagues,
the astronauts...
534
00:43:21,974 --> 00:43:24,807
are giving the kickoff
from Earth to the Moon.
535
00:43:34,423 --> 00:43:36,930
When we surfaced again, we were a
bit dizzy from the cold,
536
00:43:36,930 --> 00:43:38,078
and from looking into the future.
537
00:43:38,926 --> 00:43:42,239
We pictured to ourselves the Yakutsk
soccer team playing host at last...
538
00:43:42,239 --> 00:43:45,518
to a team from Odessa,
or even Marseilles,
539
00:43:45,964 --> 00:43:48,516
in an underground stadium with
electronic referees...
540
00:43:48,409 --> 00:43:50,815
that go 'tilt' whenever the fans boo.
541
00:43:51,243 --> 00:43:55,350
There'll no longer be a season
for soccer and a season for track,
542
00:43:55,669 --> 00:43:57,932
but perpetual springtime for all things,
543
00:43:58,483 --> 00:43:59,846
including the culture parks,
544
00:43:59,846 --> 00:44:03,979
those playgrounds for adults which
winter also empties of their visitors.
545
00:44:04,610 --> 00:44:07,951
Culture is what's left behind
when everyone has gone home.
546
00:44:13,911 --> 00:44:17,369
We wandered through that
deserted freezing park.
547
00:44:17,989 --> 00:44:20,721
We looked at the posters announcing
the last movies of the season.
548
00:44:20,808 --> 00:44:23,154
Oddly enough the titles were familiar:
549
00:44:23,813 --> 00:44:26,609
Fidelio, The Queen of Spades,
Don Quixote.
550
00:44:28,930 --> 00:44:31,113
A little gypsy wind was
scraping our bones,
551
00:44:31,218 --> 00:44:34,766
and in front of the library the
statue of Ordjonikidze,
552
00:44:34,744 --> 00:44:37,518
bolted to its pedestal like Ulysses
lashed to his mast,
553
00:44:37,518 --> 00:44:42,614
looked as surprised as we were to see a
strange visitor at the far end of the path:
554
00:44:42,633 --> 00:44:45,268
a black horse with its legs hobbled.
555
00:44:46,710 --> 00:44:49,558
Ordjonikidze had been deported to Yakutsk
before becoming its protector.
556
00:44:49,788 --> 00:44:52,392
Had he also become the guardian
angel of escaped horses...
557
00:44:52,392 --> 00:44:55,730
seeking refuge in this windswept
cathedral?
558
00:45:12,364 --> 00:45:15,618
Like Mozart's Commendatore,
Ordjonikidze nodded at the horse
559
00:45:15,929 --> 00:45:18,124
and the animal vanished into the woods.
560
00:45:18,735 --> 00:45:21,480
Seeing us, he must have realized that he
was on the wrong set.
561
00:45:21,941 --> 00:45:26,391
He probably reappeared instantly in a Yakutsk
legend a thousand years earlier.
562
00:45:27,411 --> 00:45:30,733
Man's memory is incapable of retaining more
than one name in any given category -
563
00:45:31,155 --> 00:45:33,497
which explains monogamy and advertising.
564
00:45:34,195 --> 00:45:38,705
In North America the gold capital was Dawson,
in Siberia it was Aldan.
565
00:45:40,050 --> 00:45:42,821
This settlement used to be
called 'Camp Invisible,'
566
00:45:42,821 --> 00:45:45,236
after the little river that
runs through it.
567
00:45:45,376 --> 00:45:48,405
When it became a town they changed
the name to Aldan because it sounded better.
568
00:45:48,405 --> 00:45:51,602
The new name was taken from another river
which doesn't run through the town.
569
00:45:51,602 --> 00:45:53,077
But you can't have everything.
570
00:45:53,928 --> 00:45:56,355
Fretwork windows, curtains, and
rubber plants,
571
00:45:56,355 --> 00:45:57,433
there's no doubt about it
we're in Russia alright.
572
00:45:57,543 --> 00:46:00,593
But let a buckboard drive by, let the
band play a little gold music,
573
00:46:00,593 --> 00:46:01,776
and you're in frontier America.
574
00:46:52,882 --> 00:46:55,566
Siberia had its own gold rush,
575
00:46:56,261 --> 00:46:58,198
on those same steamers with
the tall smokestacks...
576
00:46:58,198 --> 00:47:00,598
that would one day bring Charlie Chaplin
home a millionaire,
577
00:47:00,598 --> 00:47:03,554
in those same railway stations where
the trains always stop at high noon;
578
00:47:04,084 --> 00:47:05,925
the same mirage worked its magic.
579
00:47:06,797 --> 00:47:10,425
If you'd already struck it rich enough
to buy a ticket on the Trans-Siberian,
580
00:47:10,701 --> 00:47:13,323
the first part of your journey
was relatively easy.
581
00:47:13,373 --> 00:47:15,040
In fact it was downright luxurious.
582
00:47:15,354 --> 00:47:16,895
The Trans-Siberian, with its
drawing rooms,
583
00:47:16,895 --> 00:47:20,719
kitchens, bathrooms, pianos,
bedrooms and chapel,
584
00:47:20,945 --> 00:47:23,636
was a kind of castle on wheels,
585
00:47:24,479 --> 00:47:27,485
and it had two advantages
over most castles:
586
00:47:27,975 --> 00:47:30,452
there were no stairs to climb,
and it went all the way across Siberia.
587
00:47:31,576 --> 00:47:34,708
Up to this point the scenery has
been basically Russian,
588
00:47:35,436 --> 00:47:37,886
but once you cross the Ienissei
the scene changes.
589
00:47:38,675 --> 00:47:41,454
The uniformed engineers were just
beginning to regret Moscow,
590
00:47:41,881 --> 00:47:45,386
when the American 49ers were
already exploring Arizona.
591
00:47:50,197 --> 00:47:52,131
You expected to see Indians?
592
00:47:52,192 --> 00:47:53,113
Well they were there too.
593
00:47:53,442 --> 00:47:54,529
Indians?
594
00:47:56,441 --> 00:47:57,463
Cowboys?
595
00:47:59,052 --> 00:48:00,341
Rustlers?
596
00:48:01,933 --> 00:48:02,938
Trappers?
597
00:48:04,681 --> 00:48:05,969
Gunfights?
598
00:48:07,318 --> 00:48:08,490
And romances.
599
00:48:08,490 --> 00:48:09,982
While the Siberian gold rush never
mustered as many prospectors...
600
00:48:09,982 --> 00:48:11,867
as its Yukon equivalent,
601
00:48:12,025 --> 00:48:17,504
it did involve 15 nationalities,
2000 professions,
602
00:48:17,543 --> 00:48:20,134
and an unknown number
of years in prison.
603
00:48:20,419 --> 00:48:23,822
More remarkable is the fact
that until 1927,
604
00:48:23,972 --> 00:48:25,522
ten years after the revolution,
605
00:48:25,767 --> 00:48:28,606
the Soviet government had no control
over the Aldan district.
606
00:48:28,957 --> 00:48:31,364
There were gunmen on the roads,
smugglers in the towns,
607
00:48:31,364 --> 00:48:33,644
and gold dust would change pockets
whenever someone...
608
00:48:33,644 --> 00:48:35,628
quick on the draw met someone quicker.
609
00:48:35,628 --> 00:48:36,803
In short, you had all the ingredients
of a Western.
610
00:48:37,013 --> 00:48:40,220
In those days knives between
the shoulder blades...
611
00:48:40,220 --> 00:48:43,891
were more common than hammers and
sickles on the shirtsleeves.
612
00:48:44,123 --> 00:48:46,845
As for women, they say there were
none at all in the beginning,
613
00:48:46,845 --> 00:48:47,872
which is a sad thought,
614
00:48:47,872 --> 00:48:50,624
and that later there was only one…
sounds even worse.
615
00:48:50,946 --> 00:48:52,753
But that woman was a Communist.
616
00:48:53,051 --> 00:48:56,678
And it was she, one Judith against
4000 bearded Holophernes,
617
00:48:56,678 --> 00:48:58,684
who saved the city.
618
00:48:59,522 --> 00:49:03,026
Today under the watchful gazes of a
few surviving Holophernes,
619
00:49:03,026 --> 00:49:05,702
the gold diggers have become
workers like any others.
620
00:49:06,271 --> 00:49:08,539
But in memory of that woman who achieved
the triumph of right over might,
621
00:49:08,539 --> 00:49:12,626
the gold in Aldan is guarded and handled
only by members of her sex.
622
00:49:46,869 --> 00:49:49,425
After countless doors, keys,
623
00:49:50,020 --> 00:49:52,430
armored plates and strong boxes,
624
00:49:52,430 --> 00:49:54,284
we were finally going to see the gold.
625
00:49:54,406 --> 00:49:55,810
We saw it.
626
00:49:55,918 --> 00:49:57,033
Here it is…
627
00:50:02,766 --> 00:50:04,619
Disappointing isn't it?
628
00:50:10,893 --> 00:50:13,604
As I said before, there are two
ways of finding gold:
629
00:50:14,440 --> 00:50:18,690
it's like catching a thief, you can shadow him
- in other words sink a mine shaft,
630
00:50:18,481 --> 00:50:21,405
or you can throw out a dragnet -
in other words use a dredge.
631
00:50:44,522 --> 00:50:46,711
But there are also the
rugged individualists.
632
00:50:47,316 --> 00:50:49,971
They remind me of the old time
cross country bicycle racers,
633
00:50:49,971 --> 00:50:52,524
before the sport became organized.
634
00:50:52,958 --> 00:50:55,681
You'd see them wandering around town
at every halt with their bikes on their shoulders
635
00:50:55,681 --> 00:50:57,623
looking for a hotel or a repair shop.
636
00:50:57,881 --> 00:51:00,100
Similarly, but in their case deliberately,
637
00:51:00,100 --> 00:51:03,592
the last gold diggers shun
organization and security.
638
00:51:04,390 --> 00:51:05,792
Their technique is the same
as the dredge.
639
00:51:05,792 --> 00:51:07,245
They use the old California sluice gate,
640
00:51:07,245 --> 00:51:08,939
which deposits the gold in the
bottom of a gutter.
641
00:51:09,114 --> 00:51:12,413
But the dredges bring up more gold in a day
than these men do in a year.
642
00:51:13,039 --> 00:51:16,860
If they became workers they'd earn
more and live far better.
643
00:51:16,880 --> 00:51:19,655
But they want the gold.
644
00:51:24,844 --> 00:51:31,938
The Yakut princesses were buried wearing
solid gold rings set with tiny scraps of iron
645
00:51:31,938 --> 00:51:33,770
- a far more precious metal in those days.
646
00:51:34,214 --> 00:51:36,898
And when I jokingly asked a worker if he
wasn't tempted by the nuggets in his care...
647
00:51:36,898 --> 00:51:38,524
he answered quite sincerely,
648
00:51:38,831 --> 00:51:41,976
"What for? I don't need any false teeth."
649
00:51:42,046 --> 00:51:44,091
These are two examples of the same
healthy indifference
650
00:51:44,091 --> 00:51:46,401
before and after a short bout of fever.
651
00:51:46,946 --> 00:51:49,864
But the lone prospectors have never
gotten over the fever.
652
00:51:49,864 --> 00:51:51,792
And perhaps they never will.
653
00:51:51,792 --> 00:51:53,927
Tolerated at times, outlawed at others,
654
00:51:53,927 --> 00:51:56,185
they live in the wake of the dredges like
gleaners on the heels of harvesters.
655
00:51:56,185 --> 00:51:58,407
Sometimes they're drafted
for menial work,
656
00:51:58,407 --> 00:52:00,786
but most often they're left
to their own devices.
657
00:52:00,786 --> 00:52:02,773
They may well be the only
Soviet citizens...
658
00:52:02,773 --> 00:52:05,901
not to benefit from social security,
pensions, and free medical care.
659
00:52:05,901 --> 00:52:08,680
There is no earthly reason
for them to go on.
660
00:52:10,175 --> 00:52:12,233
Do they have some
higher motivation?
661
00:52:12,605 --> 00:52:14,225
I'm not so sure.
662
00:52:14,952 --> 00:52:17,835
There is scarcely more freedom
in their individualism...
663
00:52:17,835 --> 00:52:20,068
than there is gold
in the mud they sift.
664
00:52:21,411 --> 00:52:23,301
However they've been handling
them both for so long now...
665
00:52:23,301 --> 00:52:26,585
that at times they forget which
one they're looking for.
666
00:52:27,431 --> 00:52:31,499
And perhaps in the last analysis they're
not prospecting for gold at all,
667
00:52:31,548 --> 00:52:33,957
but for mud.
668
00:52:40,494 --> 00:52:44,407
As we sailed down the Lena
again on our way back,
669
00:52:44,407 --> 00:52:45,674
we didn't recognize her,
670
00:52:46,649 --> 00:52:48,297
the big lazy sister of a few months ago...
671
00:52:48,297 --> 00:52:50,677
had now become this black girl
studded with imitation jewels,
672
00:52:50,677 --> 00:52:54,725
shimmering with sunlight that was
absent from the sky.
673
00:53:40,467 --> 00:53:45,203
At nightfall, however,
the Lena recovered her magic powers.
674
00:53:45,665 --> 00:53:48,244
We no longer thought of her merely
as a waterway,
675
00:53:48,244 --> 00:53:50,343
a provider, a shepherdess for barges.
676
00:53:50,792 --> 00:53:53,398
She was Lena the healer,
the enchantress,
677
00:53:53,973 --> 00:53:55,783
the cradle for monsters.
678
00:54:11,754 --> 00:54:14,021
Kion Kiubei, the she devil
679
00:54:14,255 --> 00:54:16,833
exorcised by the popes and despised
by active party members,
680
00:54:16,833 --> 00:54:19,505
has finally found her true expression
on the stage.
681
00:54:19,714 --> 00:54:22,363
And the gods, devils, and heroes
of Yakutsk,
682
00:54:22,363 --> 00:54:25,489
whose presence we sensed lurking behind
everything that had thrilled us in Siberia,
683
00:54:25,738 --> 00:54:28,043
lived again before our eyes
in Yakut opera,
684
00:54:28,448 --> 00:54:30,705
side by side with the towering
shadow of Niurgun Bootor,
685
00:54:30,705 --> 00:54:34,610
the legendary hero who overcame
the forces of nature to liberate mankind.
686
00:54:54,528 --> 00:54:56,990
I am Tiuenia Mogol,
the young warrior,
687
00:54:57,208 --> 00:54:59,981
Iuriun Volan has captured
my bride Tuyarima.
688
00:55:00,426 --> 00:55:03,053
Her body lies in chains and the
old miser of the ice flow...
689
00:55:03,053 --> 00:55:05,315
has her soul imprisoned
in a leather purse.
690
00:55:05,619 --> 00:55:08,660
Yet I will set her free.
Neither the wolf, nor the otter,
691
00:55:08,660 --> 00:55:11,279
neither the inquisitive fox
nor the impartial bear,
692
00:55:11,279 --> 00:55:15,501
nor the luminous spider spinning her
web in the Northern sky shall stop me.
693
00:55:15,625 --> 00:55:17,381
I will wave my spear at the
constellations...
694
00:55:17,381 --> 00:55:20,344
and drive before me with my
whip the cowering snow.
695
00:55:44,768 --> 00:55:48,323
The next morning, we came to
the Lena boulders.
696
00:55:48,870 --> 00:55:52,096
The very spot where Niurgun Bootor
fought the devil.
697
00:55:55,811 --> 00:56:00,491
And suddenly a chanced landing brought us
face to face with a magic larch tree,
698
00:56:00,491 --> 00:56:03,570
on which the people hang ex-votos.
699
00:56:04,229 --> 00:56:07,150
Thus, only a few miles away from
the economic planning office,
700
00:56:07,615 --> 00:56:10,767
and apparently not endangering in any
way the construction of socialism,
701
00:56:11,285 --> 00:56:15,604
men offer up humble objects
to an unknown god.
702
00:56:32,632 --> 00:56:38,775
In the light of this tree Yakut opera
ceases to be mere folklore.
703
00:56:56,933 --> 00:57:00,068
- I am Kiuius,
the other of Tuyarima.
704
00:57:00,515 --> 00:57:03,318
My husband is rich, and I
have costly furs.
705
00:57:04,013 --> 00:57:08,166
But Iuriun Volan has stolen
my dearest fox.
706
00:57:08,638 --> 00:57:10,452
And since thou hast gone
from my side,
707
00:57:10,851 --> 00:57:16,657
thy sharp teeth o fox, gnaw
endlessly at my heart.
708
00:57:17,355 --> 00:57:18,731
Oh thou beloved,
709
00:57:19,068 --> 00:57:22,198
O thou sweet wise snow,
710
00:57:22,198 --> 00:57:24,824
O beloved face,
711
00:57:24,824 --> 00:57:26,545
O tree of mourning,
712
00:57:27,525 --> 00:57:29,235
why were thou planted?
713
00:57:32,417 --> 00:57:36,748
On the banks of the Lena,
the heroes gather for the quest.
714
00:57:43,519 --> 00:57:47,114
Soruk Bollur, Aïyi Umsur, Aan Eskel,
715
00:57:47,610 --> 00:57:49,125
these knights with names like swords,
716
00:57:49,125 --> 00:57:50,800
are the Lancelots and the Galahads...
717
00:57:50,800 --> 00:57:54,099
of an adventure that will take
them all the way to the pole.
718
00:57:54,148 --> 00:57:58,692
Lacking a compass, they have Niurgun
Bootor's symbolic arrow,
719
00:57:58,692 --> 00:58:00,369
to guide them like a star.
720
00:58:14,019 --> 00:58:18,144
Today the Yakuts have other
stars to guide them.
721
00:58:20,030 --> 00:58:23,223
When Sputnik added its imitation pearl
to the Northern constellations,
722
00:58:23,602 --> 00:58:26,371
its coming had been expected
since the dawn of time.
723
00:58:27,902 --> 00:58:31,077
All around us the Siberian earth
swarms with beckoning signs,
724
00:58:31,347 --> 00:58:34,223
and we felt it was deeply symbolic
that the first living creatures...
725
00:58:34,223 --> 00:58:38,263
sent into space were Siberian
dogs, the Laïkas.
726
00:58:39,024 --> 00:58:40,282
Switching from sleds to rockets...
727
00:58:40,282 --> 00:58:42,879
is the Siberian way of keeping
abreast of the times.
728
00:59:01,072 --> 00:59:03,281
I am writing you this letter
from a distant land.
729
00:59:04,464 --> 00:59:07,126
Her charred trees and
empty wastelands...
730
00:59:07,126 --> 00:59:10,368
are as dear to me as her
rivers and flowers.
731
00:59:10,926 --> 00:59:12,430
Her name is Siberia.
732
00:59:13,797 --> 00:59:15,267
She lies somewhere between
the Middle Ages...
733
00:59:15,267 --> 00:59:16,794
and the 21st century.
734
00:59:17,634 --> 00:59:19,060
Between the earth and the moon,
735
00:59:19,541 --> 00:59:21,801
between humiliation and happiness.
736
00:59:23,655 --> 00:59:24,944
After that...
737
00:59:25,331 --> 00:59:26,681
it's straight ahead.
66254
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