All language subtitles for Documentary Now s04e01 Soldier of Illusion 1.eng

♪

♪

♪

Good evening.
I'm Helen Mirren.

And you're watching
"Documentary Now!", season 53.

In 1983, German filmmaker,
Rainer Wolz,

set out into the punishing
Ular Mountains of Russia

with an uncompromising vision.

But over the grueling months
of filming,

truth and fiction blurred,
as did man and nature.

Witness "Soldier of Illusion."

♪

In the eastern part of Russia,

between the Ular Mountains
and the Volga River,

live the Dushkir people,
an indigenous tribe

that populates most of
the desolate terrain

between Russia and Kazakhstan.

In 1982, revered
German filmmaker, Rainer Wolz,

came to this brutal part
of the world

with a film crew
and a single-minded vision.

♪

Two decades later, Rainer has
returned to the Dushkir Valley

to retrace the arduous steps
of his ambitious plans.

Rainer: The last time I stood
on these ignorant stones,

I was a younger man,
filled with Bavarian pride.

I had taken two jobs at once,
with the vinegar of the pompous

declared I could shoot
both projects at the same time,

on the same location.

Here.

One was a film chronicling
the life of

the Dushkir people during their
Tusian sheep breeding season.

[Sheep bleating]

The other was a CBS sitcom
called "Bachelor Nanny",

the story of a single guy who,

after agreeing to take
in his sister's twin newborns,

has to juggle babies and babes.

[Bird screeches]

[Choir singing]

♪

[Cheers and applause]

Hello!

♪

But when a camera
is brought into nature,

like the tool given
to the Jester Monkey,

the very state of nature
is changed.

A wilderness with a camera in it
is no longer a wilderness.

It's something else.

And when you add
another camera to that,

you are adding a camera
to a new thing,

which is a wilderness
with already a camera in it.

Each lens distorts
the previous distortion.

What you are left
with at the end

is not a wilderness anymore,

but an illusion
resembling a wilderness.

[Sheep bleating]

Narrator: Rainer has been living
among the Dushkir

for several months,
building trust among the natives

and collecting footage
for his documentary.

Meanwhile, Alan Yaffa,
head of comedy at CBS,

has arrived
to supervise production

on Rainer's other project,

the sitcom pilot
for "Bachelor Nanny."

Alan: A couple years ago,
I inherited a slate of shows

that were so Hiroshima like

in terms of how
upsetting they were that --

let me just say this.

I wouldn't screen
that season's pilots

for Helen Keller.

On the off, off chance
that her nurse or whatever,

on the off chance that
her friend wrote with her finger

on Helen Keller's palm
what was happening,

and Helen could
follow the pilot,

I wouldn't even risk that.

So I needed new material,
and I went looking for it.

And I got my hands on a hot spec
called "Bachelor Nanny"

by this fresh new voice,
Mark Pomerance.

He's 40, white, Jewish,

worked on eight other series,
tight, curly hair.

So I wanted to bring
in a director

who could take this material off
the page and make it all happen.

Alan Yaffa at CBS,
and Sharon Schuster

at Lorimar, who I love.

Everyone loves Sharon.

They came to me with this piece,
"Bachelor Nanny",

after seeing
a three-hour film of mine,

"The Trials of Master Pfreim."

♪

And I said, "I can do the pilot
but I must shoot it here,

where the Volga River
meets the Ular Mountains,

where Russia meets Asia
and the ancient past

meets the present misery."

And for my fee, I ask nothing.

So Yaffa said, "Okay, cool."

[Sheep bleating]

Narrator: One of the first
challenges the production faced

was finding a space
for a makeshift sound stage

in a region devoid
of large interior buildings.

Rainer: In order to construct
the proper television studio,

we considered using this
abandoned Soviet mine in Torkik.

At one time the sixth largest
source of boron in Eurasia.

[Speaking indistinctly]

The acoustics are very good.

La! La! La!
Oh! Oh! Oh!

In the silence,
we can hear the anguish

of the men mining boron
decades ago.

And maybe, we can hear
our own heartbeats.

We could build
a Jacuzzi set here.

Oh, yeah, yeah --

The tunnel of the mine
was deep and treacherous

but the cast, crew,
and studio audience

would have to be secured
through one rope line.

They ascend this wall 24 meters,

then on the ridge,
and then down 30 meters,

and that's quite perilous.

Oh, ya.

We explained
to a seismologist

that we planned on having
four sets of bleachers

for live studio audience
of 100 persons.

[Speaking indistinctly]

Ah, we will have
a big laugh,

like "Ha! Ha! Ha!"
Look at the Bachelor Nanny."

And little laughs like,
"Ya ya, that's a funny one."

And if someone walks
in who likes to party...

-Oh yeah.
-...it will be

a, "Whoop, whoop,
whoop, whoop!"

[Speaking native language]

Narrator: With the boron mine no
longer viable as a sound stage,

Rainer would now have to build
the entire sitcom set outdoors,

in the punishing landscape
of the Dushkir wilderness.

[Choir singing]

♪

♪

♪

[Shouting in native language]

And pull! Pull! Pull!

Pull!

Not bad. Retrieving the line,
retrieving the line.

[Shouting indistinctly]

[Rope straining]

Watch the balls!
Watch the balls!

My documentary on the Dushkir

and pre-production
on "Bachelor Nanny"

worked symbiotically
once local Dushkir craftsmen

stopped making their
traditional winter snowshoes

and instead made
all of the props

for "Bachelor Nanny."

[Speaking native language]

[Chuckles]

[Sheep bleating]

♪

♪

This will be the bar area.
Bachelor pad needs a bar.

♪

♪

Okay.

Back, get more please.

[Motor starts]

♪

Good! Perfect!

♪

[Sheep bleating]

Narrator: With set construction
well underway,

Rainer and Yaffa
set about casting the pilot.

So, I'm in -- [Coughs]
Pardon me.

I'm in bed one night,
and I'm flipping around,

and I see this comedian
on Johnny Carson.

Gary Jacks.

We have somebody new for you
to meet this evening.

-You know, just the other night,
I was in bed with my girlfriend,

and she said "Honey, do you ever
think about other women

when we're making whoopy?"

[Laughter]

And I said, "What?"

And I took out
my Walkman headphones,

because I'm a gentleman, right?

[Applause]

He was funny.

We had found our bachelor.

Narrator: Comedian Gary Jacks
arrived in the Ulars

after a 35-hour journey.

This is a good place
to eat, right?

By the water.
Kind of hungry.

As the series lead and number
one on the call sheet,

Gary would have to win
the respect of the Dushkir

by participating
in an ancient tradition

known as the Wolf Game.

[Speaking
native language]

[Growls]

[Chuckles]
This is so weird!

Okay, what do I do?
What do I do?

He's a wolf.
You must kill him.

He's a wolf,
and I just kill him

with this
plant thing, right?

Okay. You are a wolf,
and you must die!

[Groans]

[All shouting]

The wolf was your brother!
You killed your brother!

You told me
to kill him!

You must beg the wolf
for forgiveness. Now! Now!

I'm so sorry.
Please forgive me.

I didn't even know
I had a brother --

The wolf spirit
accepted Gary's apology.

To celebrate,
we shared a meal of oofa,

and Gary Jacks signed
a few head shots.

He was now a part of the tribe.

Gary: This is kind of like
the holy grail

if you're a comedian.

If this gets picked up, which,
you know, I think it will,

this is going to be a long road
but ultimately a good one.

I'm excited.

When it came to
Bachelor Brian's

best friend, Gordy,
we and the network agreed,

former child star
Kevin Butterman,

better known as
Little Randy Sullivan from

ABC's "The Sullivan Kids",
of course.

Now, Kevin's career had
evaporated with adulthood,

and I knew that
he would bring to Gordy,

the desperate longing
of a broken man.

Shooting on location.

I've never shot
on location before.

Kevin: I've got to tell you,
I've never been more excited

to do a pilot than I am
this one, with Rainer Wolz.

A dream catcher necklace.

About seven years ago,

I wondered into what I thought
was a porno theater,

and it turned out
to be an art house cinema.

And I wanted to go there
to see something naughty.

I did, you know, I was
in a place in my life where...

You know, whatever.

A double feature came on,

"The Bavarian Widow Cole"

and "The Cruel Pubescence
of Anst Dangler",

both by Rainer Wolz,

and, oh, God I just...

I felt like a kid again.

Just thinking, "Who made this?"

I got to work with this guy.

Narrator: Rainer had found
his two leads,

but casting
the series' love interest

was proving to be complicated.

April, well,
she is a no nonsense

yet attractive woman
with plenty of comebacks.

She's Shelley Long pretty

but with a tougher
attitude basically.

Someone who has seen it all,

but also knows her way
around the bedroom.

Narrator: To calm rising
tensions between the Dushkir

and the "Bachelor Nanny"
production, Rainer and CBS

give the role of April
to the chief's daughter,

a strange soul called Masho.

Rainer: Masho? Masho?

Look into the camera.

No, don't look at me.
Look at the camera. Perfect.

The whole ecosystem of
the "Bachelor Nanny"

was based on
the adorable twin babies

that the bachelor
has to raise.

The youngest set of multiples
within 500 miles

were Nanct and Danct,
two mute Dushkir boys.

They would play our baby girls.

Nanct and Danct are perfect.
I'm happy.

Why do you think
I need four twins?

Yeah.

Yeah, I know, good,
you're right.

Okay, find another set of twins.

So we would cast
the spinster sisters Brunsk,

whom God has been unkind to,
as our backup babies in case

Nanct and Danct get colicky
and screamy on tape night.

Yeah.

It's good, it's good.

My assistant director
was known only as Half-Tone.

He had lived in a monastery
in Bavaria from the age of 10,

after having ecstatic visions
of a voluptuous Virgin Mary.

In 30 years of friendship,

Half-Tone has never slept
in my presence,

nor said anything to me

to suggest he has
experienced sleep.

We were filming a hair
and makeup test one day

when nature reared
her monstrous head.

Two bears,
Kamchatka brown bears,

had entered out base camp.

We could tell from
the tight ribs against their fur

that they were hungry
and enraged.

[Bear breathing heavily]

[Sighs]

[Bear snarling,
people scream]

Our Dushkir crew,
nurtured from birth

by the brutality of the Ular
plains, fled to higher ground.

[Bear snarling]

Reinhart, my camera operator,

knowing the importance
of the camera test

to the decision makers
in Burbank,

moved to protect the camera.

The ferocious creature's
claws buried themselves

in Reinhart's flesh,
puncturing his lung.

Our boom operator,
Henri, froze.

It was just him and the bear.
Surely he would be next.

But then, Half-Tone,
in a holy rage

and armed with
a solingen Bowie hunting knife,

attacked the male
bear and his girlfriend.

[Bear growling]

[Knife plunging]

[Screaming]

After the violence that
Half-Tone committed that day,

I would only ever show this
footage to CBS head of comedy,

Alan Yaffa.

The shirt is good, right?
You like the shirt?

The makeup test
would prove successful.

Is that a bear?
Yeah.

However,
the orgy of violence

that followed it
would be another story.

Jesus Christ.

Half-Tone's attack
was so swift and brutal...

What happened?...that the Kamchatka bear

and his girlfriend survived
68 stab wounds

before escaping
to the safety of death.

Ah!

No one can see this.

I agree.

I will destroy
the footage.

But it will continue
to haunt us forever.

Are they going to try
something different

with Gary Jacks' hair?

Yes, of course.

Okay.

[Shouting in native language]

[Groans]

Rainer:
His encounter with the bears

had rocked Half-Tone
to his very marrow.

[Speaking native language]

Rainer:
From that day forward,

he only wore the prescribed cowl
of his former monastery.

Well, 'cause then it's like this
is my friend's place.

Narrator: The ill-fated bear
attack eats into

valuable prep time,
reducing Rainer's

two-week rehearsal period
down to only three days.

He and the actors
now focus on scene work

and building chemistry.

Rainer: Action.

Gordy, I'm telling you,
this landlady --

"lady" is in quotes --

this woman is the reason
earplugs were invented.

Enter Masho,
with a plunger.

Line, Masho.

-[Speaking native language]
-So, you need a plunger.

Did your after shave melt
the pipes?

Friend of my friend line.

My friend,
she is a 10.

How are you not
thanking God

this babe lives
in your basement?

Off stage we here babies
crying, wah, wah.

Maybe we should
block her?

Yes! She cannot
see the babies.

-[Speaking native language]
-Were those babies?

Your lease says no babies.

No. That's a song from my
favorite album, "The Crybabies."

Giggle, giggle
from the audience.

Thanks for the plunger.
I'll see you soon.

And that -- this door's
going to open -- right, okay.

-We'll fix it on today.
-Okay. Yeah.

Masho, out.
Babies, stop crying.

Whew! That was a close call.
She almost saw the twins.

Gordy reenters with the twins
wrapped in baby swaddles.

They each
have pacifiers.

Boy, these pacifiers
really work.

I should get one
for my ex-wife.

Gigantic laugh!

And...that's the blow!

And with that,
we fade to commercial.

Okay! Okay!

-Okay.
-I love it.

-It's perfect.
-It's perfect.

-The pace is awesome.

Narrator: Just as the cast
is finding its groove,

the production receives
a surprise visit.

-Rainer: Who is here?
-[Speaking native language]

Gary Jackson.Who's Gary Jackson?

[Speaking native language]

Oh, Gary Jacks.
That's Gary Jacks. Yes.

Gary Jacks.This is Gary Jacks.

-Yeah.
-How's it going, guys?

Narrator: Under Andropov,
the Soviet Union

had outlawed indigenous
activities and games.

Footage of Gary Jacks
playing the Wolf Game

had fallen
into the hands of the KGB.

They're saying they will
shut down filming

and expel all of us.

Or they can take Gary Jacks.

If we promise not to make
an international incident

out of it, they...

they will let us continue.

[Sheep bleating]

Uh, can I have
a word with you?

Yeah. Yeah.

In here? Sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
everything's fine.

They're saying that...

[Continues inaudibly]

[Speaking foreign language]

Hey, hang on.
Rainier, what's going on?

Rainer: Gary Jacks,
a frequent guest of Merv Griffin

and "The Tonight Show",

was whisked away
to a fate unknown.

With less than a week to go
before tape night,

we seemed destined to be another
carcass on the shores of Hades.

Then, with a trepidation
of the inevitable,

I realized I had the man in mind

who would take his place.

Man: Hey! Rainer!

[Speaking native language]

I am the sun!

Rainer: In just a short time
with the Tusian mountain sheep,

it was deeply impressed upon me
how enormously stupid

these foul creatures
actually are.

I was equally amazed
with the majestic heights

of the Dushkir
people's patience

in abiding by
their wooly companions,

for I would have abandoned
the little morons long ago.

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