About the film
In 1902 Captain Vladimir Arsenyev leads a mapping expedition into the wild Ussuri region of the Far East. He meets Dersu, a Nanai hunter who lives alone in the forest and reads it like a book.
Dersu saves the expedition more than once, including in a famous scene on a frozen lake as a storm comes in. Years later, when his eyesight fails, Arsenyev tries to bring him to the city.
Akira Kurosawa shot it in 70mm, and it is the Japanese master's only film made in the USSR. It is a slow, beautiful film about friendship, nature and the cost of civilisation.
Did you know?
- It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1976.
- It was Kurosawa's only film made outside Japan.
- Maxim Munzuk, who plays Dersu, was a Tuvan actor and musician.
