With this film, Akira Kurosawa signaled the start of his later phase: no longer enthusiastically supported by the Japanese government and film industry, forced to find funding abroad, and increasingly chilly in outlook.
Maksim Munzuk plays Dersu Uzala, a Goldi trapper/hunter/guide for a thoroughly European Russian army officer mapping eastern Siberia. While Dersu's influence on the officer is a positive one, the officer's arrival denotes the end of Dersu's way of life. Although there is deep love between the two, the officer cannot save him from new times and advancing years.
I truly enjoy this film, but am very sad Kurosawa had to leave the Japan he had served so well, to make a Russian-financed and Russian-language film. I am sure he saw much of Dersu Uzala in himself. |
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