MOSFILM
Third Artists' Association USSR
with participation of "Atelier-41" Japan
KORFOVSKAYA
- Looking for something? - Yes, for a grave.
Nobody's died around this place yet.
Nearly three years ago, I buried a friend here.
A friend.
There were tall trees out there, a cedar and a fir.
You remember those trees?
I guess we cut them down to build the village.
Maybe, those?
Dersu...
Dersu Uzala
All day our hunter.
goes around the isles.
He curses his bad fortune,
no luck he beguiles.
What is there to do?
How can he perform his job?
Never forgets our hunter.
That beast's no easy drop.
There went our hunter to a warm seaside,
where fish abounded on days quiet and bright.
There, by the seaside!
That year, my mission was
to go through the Shkotov area in the Ussuri Region,
in order to make a topographical survey of the country.
Sometimes the mountains and the forest look pleasant, welcoming.
Sometimes though, they can be silent and forbidding.
This wasn't just a personal feeling,
every man in the survey group felt the same way.
He whom God helps, nobody can harm.
Let's camp here for the night, and tomorrow we'll find a better place.
- All right, we can camp here. - We're making camp here!
This valley reminded me of
a painting of The Witches' Sabbath.
I could almost imagine them coming on their broomsticks.
- What was that? - A stone falling.
Somebody's coming this way.
A bear!
Shoot not! Me a man!
Hello, Captain!
Look at him, he's a man, really.
And, you said a bear!
Would you like to have supper with us?
Thank you. Me not eat nothing for all day.
What are you? Chinese? Korean?
People called "Gold".
Are you a hunter?
Me hunt all time. No other work. Nothing.
Where do you live?
Me no home. In mountains me got little hut.
Sleep there. Good enough for me.
It looks like you haven't killed anything today.
Today me shoot at deer. He ran away, not dead, only wounded.
Me chase that deer. Me saw man tracks.
Me walk after slow and easy,
me wonder what men doing so far in mountains.
Me look careful. Captain there, soldiers there.
And so me, me come as well.
You're a strange hunter not to hit a bull's-eye.
You always hit bull's-eye?
We're in the army. We're not allowed to miss targets.
Then you great hunter!
You shoot everything, leave for us nothing to eat.
Hey, you enough talking at us!
Alright, alright.
We can talk now.
My name's Arsenyev. You tell me yours.
Dersu Uzala.
And how old are you?
How old, me not know. Me lived plenty summers.
You have a family?
Family all dead. Long ago.
Me had little wife, son and baby girl.
Get smallpox and now they all dead. Only Dersu alive.
We're exploring this region,
the big hills, the valleys, the rivers.
Do you want to be our guide?
Me, sleep on it.
All right, you think it over.
It's time that we turned in too.
The next day, without saying a word,
Dersu took his place at the head of the group.
Here trail, go here!
- Here's a trail! - Hey, there's a trail!
Along here, two-three days ago. Man walking here.
Big rain fall then. Tracks of Chinese.
How do you know?
Not have eyes to see?
Chinese wear boot. Look, water in tracks.
You all like little children. Got eyes but don't see.
When you live in wilds, real soon you be dead.
Chinese! Come on!
Real soon now, find hut.
How do you know that?
Use eyes. Bark torn off for make roof.
Ashes flattened by the rain,
a bed of straw,
a piece of Chinese cloth,
just as Dersu had informed us.
A Chinese had certainly spent the night here very recently.
Look at that!
Captain, you give rice, salt, matches.
What for?
Put it in bark, leave it in hut.
- Do you intend to come back? - Why?
Others come this way. Find dry wood there.
Food to eat. People no die.
Olentiev! Bring some matches, rice, salt.
I couldn't help admiring him.
He was so wise. He had a deep knowledge
born of a lifetime spent in the wilds.
He was goodhearted, generous minded.
He could think of a man he'd never met,
and that he probably would never meet.
Dersu, maybe we should wait till the rain stops?
Time to get ready. Birds begin singing, you hear?
Rain soon finish now.
Sun shine soon.
- Do you know what the sun is? - Sure, everyone know sun.
You never see sun?
You just take look. There he is in sky!
Captain, sun very big fellow, strong.
If he die one day, we all die!
Moon too, another real big fellow.
That bad fellow, noisy.
To listen to you talk, there's nothing but people around you.
People, yes. He's another fellow. Water alive.
How do you like that? So the fire's alive?
Sure, fire is strong fellow.
When he get angry, forest burn days and days.
Fire, water, wind get angry me plenty scared!
Fire, water, wind: three strong fellows!
That day, it snowed for the first time.
- Why for you shoot? - Because we like shooting.
You waste bullet for nothing.
Don't you know sharpshooters need to practice?
Well, Seryoga, did you have too much drink last night?
All right!
It's as bad as hitting a bird on the wing.
- Good shooting is good hitting. - Have a try, Granddad.
Shouldn't break bottle. Not lot of bottles in wilds.
Don't try to get out of it. Admit you can't hit the bottle.
Me shoot at string, and then you give me bottle.
If you hit the string, the bottle is yours.
Go ahead, Marchenko!
All right!
There, Olentiev, he really won his bottle!
Get ready now men! We're moving out.
Where's Dersu?
He took his day's ration of vodka and went away.
He's over there by the river, singing. Must be drunk.
Here, give me that.
Mind if I sit down with you, Dersu?
Captain, over there my wife, kids. All dead. Smallpox.
So wife, kids, home, me burn everything.
Me get real bad dream last night.
Me see hut. Hut soon fall down.
In dream, wife and kids in hut.
They got no food, hurt with cold.
Me come here to get them food.
Yesterday, old fellow here, all alone. Sleep not at night.
How do you know that?
No traces close to fire where people sleep.
How do you know that he's old?
Young always walk on toes, old always walk on flat of heel.
A few days later I met this old Chinese man.
This man name Li Sung Binn. Sixty four year old.
Come from city call Tien Sin.
And what's he doing here?
He have woman. His brother take her. He come here in mountains.
He stay here 40 years alone.
Thank you.
It's getting cold.
Maybe we should ask him over to the fire.
No, Captain. Got to let him be alone.
Now he think plenty.
Dream of house, dream of garden.
Garden all in flowers.
Captain!
Li Sung Binn want say goodbye. He say he go home again now.
The final goal of our expedition
was to explore the region of Lake Khanka.
To get there, we would have to cross huge marshes with no trails.
I sent the larger part of the group to Tchernigovka,
and Dersu, Olentiev, Krushinov and myself
headed toward the lake in a flat-bottomed dugout.
Olentiev, you stay here.
Dersu and I will go on ahead. Unload the stuff.
We go back to dugout soon? Me plenty plenty bad scared.
The lake's not far off. We'll go that far and come back.
Me do what you say. You say alright, Dersu say alright.
A vast silence reigned over the frozen lake.
The very silence seemed in a way to be menacing.
We go back to dugout now. Wind going to quick blow away track.
All right.
Don't worry, Dersu, we'll soon find out the way we came.
Over there!
Captain, we not come this way. No good!
We get bad lost.
This is the right way. Only how can we cross? Water's all around.
Soon sun go down. Soon night be here. We get plenty dead.
If the bivouac is near, they're sure to hear us.
We'll have to spend the night here. It's dangerous to go farther.
So what's best now?
Captain, listen real good. Got to work and work good.
We don't work real good, we soon be dead.
- Work at what? - Cut marsh-grass.
Captain! Work good! No stop!
Captain!
Captain! Work! Work!
Captain! Got to hold grass in place.
Take rope!
Captain! Get up!
In the howling wind, I sank into oblivion.
I don't know how long I slept.
Captain! .
Hey, you no bear. Come out! Sun fellow shining!
It was then that I realized that Dersu's ingenuity had saved my life.
Thank you, Dersu. I'd have died without you.
Walk together, work together. No need say thank you.
That's Olentiev!
As time passed, our mission became harder.
Forward, forward.
Bitter cold, fatigue, hunger.
Man is too small faced with the vastness of nature.
Forward, keep moving!
Captain, me smell smoke.
Ussuri people cooking fish.
Captain, where we walk next?
We'll head for Tchernigovka. Our men are waiting for us there.
Then we take the rail road to Vladivostok.
Coming with us? A good town, nice to live there.
Sorry, me not want. Town no good for me.
Dersu can't hunt in town. Hunt for sable, no can do.
At least come with me as far as the station.
I can find you some money, buy you supplies.
Money, Dersu not need.
Me go hunt for sable now. Sable is like money to hunter.
What is it, Dersu?
Me, very bad fellow.
Me need only bullets to shoot.
Olentiev! Give him everything that's left.
Thank you, Captain.
Me tomorrow walk alone.
Four suns straight ahead.
Daubikhe first, then Ulakhe, then Foudzinh.
Me hear that there plenty, plenty sable there.
Got plenty deer too.
Me hear you talk of train.
Me no understand. Now me understand.
Goodbye, soldier fellows!
Take care of yourself.
Goodbye Dersu! One day, maybe we'll meet again.
Goodbye, Captain.
I wish you the best of everything, Dersu.
I also hope we'll meet again.
Goodbye.
He's a good man, isn't he? I never met anyone like him before.
He's something rare. God bless him and keep him well.
All day our hunter
goes around the isles.
He curses his bad fortune,
no luck he beguiles.
What is there to do?
How can he perform his job?
Never forgets our hunter.
That beast is no easy drop.
There went our hunter to a warm seaside...
Captain!
Dersu!
End of part one
DERSU UZALA
Part two
That spring,
I traveled again to the Ussuri country.
Make way!
Ho! Come on!
Where are you going? To the left!
Let's go!
Watch out! Careful with the horses!
We spent three months in the wilds, and spring gave way to summer.
We explored a lot of country.
But if Dersu had been with us, we would've explored a lot more.
All the time I kept hoping that I'd meet up with him again.
Where are you, Dersu?
Go on, back up the stream! Go on!
Bring some water, quick!
What took you so long?
You promised us a wild boar.
A couple of miles from here I met a hunter.
He asked me about the detachment. Who we are, who the captain is.
Did you tell him anything?
No, I didn't. We're under military secrecy.
Is he still over there?
No, he's not. He suddenly began to pack up his kit in a great hurry.
- Your rifle! - I won't need it...
- Dersu! - Captain!
It you, Captain!
Hello there, Dersu! My dear old friend.
Why, you haven't changed a bit, Dersu. As young as ever.
Oh, my dear gray-winged eagle,
where've you been for so long?
How've you been all those years?
How many sables have you got?
Plenty. Plenty of money too.
Only Dersu lose all money.
Rich merchant ask me to his house. Plenty vodka.
Me give all money to merchant to look after.
Then me not find him no more. Why he that way? Me not understand.
Oh, my dear gray-winged eagle,
where've you been for so long?
I flew high over the mountains,
Where peace and quiet reign.
In the morning a thick fog covered the forest.
We were walking at the head of the column.
I was feeling good. Dersu was with us.
Dersu, what do you think? Will the fog clear up soon?
It clear very soon. Forest and earth are all sweating.
Very soon be fine weather.
The section's lagging too far behind. They should have caught up by now.
Let's wait here.
Me lose pipe. Me go back and look.
How me lose pipe like this?
Dersu getting old. Or Dersu got head not working.
Captain!
That track of Amba! He walking here behind us.
When we walk this way, no track on path before.
When Dersu stop back there, he very close.
We go along this way, Amba go along too.
Amba don't never make no noise.
I beg your pardon, we're a bit late. Horses got bogged in the marshes.
Dersu, is that your pipe?
- What's the matter? - There's a tiger around.
Watch out, men! There's a tiger around!
Keep alert!
Amba still follow our trail.
Why you follow us? What you want, Amba?
We go along our way. We not bother you.
You not got enough room in forest?
Forward!
What are you stopping for?
It looks like a trap over there.
- What's this? - Loudieva.
Loudieva? What's that?
Animals go down Loudieva to drink.
Then when they go around barrier, fall into trap.
Men kill animals.
A couple of you men come with Mel .
Belonozhkin, Zagursky, Zakharov, Bochkaryov follow me!
Watch out!
Captain, look!
Check on the other traps.
There's a deer and a couple of stags already dead.
Pasha, found anything?
I found two more traps. Nothing alive in either.
- How about you, Andrei? - I just fell into one.
Vassily, what have you got?
It's a real butcher shop over here.
- Who did this? - Bad Chinese did that.
Why trap not looked at? Not right way to hunt.
Kill animals for nothing is bad!
Go get the axes and shovels.
- What's going on? - Hunhutsi, Captain!
They make hole in Dersu's shirt. Me make hole in them.
- How many? - Eight.
Two men stay here. The rest follow me.
They've gotten away, bastards!
Hunhutsi, bad Chinese!
Steal all money, steal furs too.
Steal women, murder all the men!
Look at this, Captain.
Hunhutsi steal three women.
Where they put men? Me not understand.
Turtygin!
Hey, fellows! Come on over here!
Back there, there's plenty mosquitoes.
At night, face this big... great suffering. Bad way to die.
Good thing we find them during daylight. All still alive.
Those Hunhutsi, I'll shoot the lot of them.
Hunhutsi!
That Tchjan Bao. They not Hunhutsi.
We're fighting the Hunhutsi.
I'm Arsenyev. We're making a survey of the region.
- Glad to know you. - A pleasure.
Did they steal the women?
Hunhutsi go that way! Hurry, hurry!
Don't worry. They won't get far. Will you take care of the men?
All right! Fall in, men!
The bandits aren't more than ten. We'll be able to manage this.
- Well, good luck to you. - Goodbye.
Soon be over. Hunhutsi good as dead.
At first glance, the river seemed calm and peaceful.
I had sent a detachment upstream to look for a ford,
while I tried to cross over on a raft with the others.
Try the other side.
Give me a hand.
Pass over the rifles.
Where're the poles?
Throw over a pole, quick!
Come on!
Men, follow them on the bank!
Keep going!
Get ahead of us!
Jump, Captain!
Dersu!
- If only we had a rope! - We used it all to make the raft.
Cut the tree!
- This one? - No!
- This one? - Yes!
Get the axes, quick!
Tie cord to tree!
Your belts, hurry!
The rifle-slings, too.
- We need poles. - Go ahead.
Hold on!
Get to work! Hurry!
Hold on, Dersu!
Let it out.
That's the way! Easy now.
Now pull!
Dersu, you look like a bear.
When rain like this, Captain, mean autumn come.
Little to the left. That's fine.
Are you ready? Hold it! Here we go!
Come over here and take a picture of us now.
You press the lever here.
Among the souvenirs I have of Dersu, the happiest ones
are linked with the beginning of autumn.
- What's that? - Amba.
You listen, Amba! Soldier got gun, they shoot.
Better you go now!
Me do bad thing! Amba bad hurt!
The tiger ran away.
Amba always run till him die.
Me am now bad frightened.
A dead tiger won't do you any harm.
Kongnga going to send another Amba after Dersu.
Kongnga is the spirit of the forest worshiped by the Gold people.
From that day Dersu became moody and irritable.
Why you do that?
The sign say no Ginseng here.
You break sign... fellows no find ginseng in forest.
You bad fellow.
Why you throw meat in fire?
Tomorrow we go away, tomorrow other fellow sit here.
They don't find no meat, so they no eat.
- Who's going to be here? - Lot of fellows.
Weasel come here, woodchuck, crow come here, mouse too.
Plenty other fellow in wilds.
Good evening, Dersu. How are you?
Autumn in the Ussuri region is short.
In preparation for the winter,
I had sent some of the detachment to the Olga gulf.
Wait! Smell fellow!
- What fellow? - Wild boar people.
I don't smell anything.
- Why didn't you shoot? - Me not see him.
Why me no see wild boar fellow?
Got one nose see plenty better than two eye.
At the time I didn't realize
that this small incident heralded tragic events.
An animal!
Where, Captain?
Where?
Over there, by that fallen tree.
- Me get him? - No.
Didn't you see you missed him?
Even the best marksmen miss a shot now and then.
Why Dersu miss?
Always me see animal first.
Always Dersu never miss. Eyes gone bad.
How me going live now in forest?
Dersu, come with me to Khabarovsk.
My home is your home.
The new year had come.
It was a strange night.
Dersu!
Amba come back again for me kill.
- Me thank you, Captain! - What's the matter?
Captain, you say my home your home.
- So you'll come then? - Bad eyes not work no good.
Kongnga spirit no want have me here. He send me Amba.
It's probable that what Dersu called Amba
was a manifestation of the terror the wilds now held for him,
a phantom that preyed upon the imagination of a tired old man.
KHABAROVSK
I've a surprise for you. Vova has recorded Dersu.
Captain go to mountains and work.
Come back home.
Sit down at table, plenty work.
Me in big town, no work.
Look at fire. Look at hills far away. That's all!
Town life is no good for him.
He'll get used to it.
- Has Dersu heard that? - Yes.
What did he say?
"Him talk plenty good. He not miss out nothing."
Does he often talk to you about the wilds?
Yes. Dersu's not afraid of anything, not of wolves, or bears either.
Nor of blizzards, nor of floods.
Dersu is Vova's hero. He's crazy about him.
I'd have died many times if it hadn't been for him.
Dersu never said anything about it.
Well, he doesn't think it something to talk about.
There are lots of others who would brag about such things.
This fellow, we have plenty years walking together in wilds.
And that, bear tooth.
And this, claw of lynx.
You take for you.
- A present, Dersu? - Yes, my little captain.
That's just great! It'll be my own talisman.
Do you have tiger claws as well?
No, me shoot at tiger.
Only tiger bad luck.
- Why? - Plenty bad luck.
Here you are. Thanks very much.
You give money to fellow for water?
Plenty water back in river!
- Why you sell lady water? - You crazy? Just a savage.
And you bad fellow.
- Where are you going? - To shoot.
You're not allowed to shoot in town.
Barrel of gun plenty dirty.
Me shoot bullet, that clean it. Me clean with rag.
But there are people around. It'll be dangerous.
Me shoot into the sky.
But it's not allowed. The town is not the mountain.
Don't you understand?
Well, how are you, Dersu?
Me sitting here like dead log in woods.
Me no understand how fellows live inside box.
Well, I must agree, it's not a cheerful room.
I think we might change the paper, make it more comfortable.
In the meantime you can move into my study.
No, thanks, Captain. Me go outside, make good tent.
Sleep there, not bother no one.
In a town, that's not allowed.
Why not? Not good?
How can I explain to you. That's the law.
Funny law.
Shooting gun not allowed, sleep in tent not allowed.
Me not breathe. Need plenty fresh air.
- Dad! Dersu's been arrested! - The police just telephoned.
He saw me going out to buy wood, and he got very excited,
and he went off to cut down a tree in the park.
Please, Captain, me want to go away.
Me can't live in town.
- Where do you want to go? - Me go back to mountains.
Captain.
Missus lady.
Little captain. You all good fellows.
Me go away bad. Sorry.
But Dersu can't live in town.
Very well, take this new rifle with you. It's a present.
The sights on it are very good.
Even if you don't see so well, you can't miss with it.
Me thank you, Captain.
TELEGRAM
"Your visiting card found on the body of a dead Gold."
"Please come and identify the corpse."
Captain Arsenyev?
You knew the deceased?
We were very good friends.
- His name? - Dersu Uzala.
- His occupation? - Hunter.
That's strange. We didn't find a rifle with him.
There should've been one, one of the latest models.
No, we didn't find any kind of rifle. Only your visiting card.
Oh, that explains everything.
The killer wanted his rifle and killed him for it.
- We're ready to bury him now. - Ground was frozen solid.
All right, bury him.
Now I must ask you for a signature.
Sign this.
Pardon me, sir, I've got work to do...
Thank you very much.
Well, my respects, Captain!