We watched a film today called Tymancha's friend. It is a beautiful story made in 1970. It is the only film ever made which is completely in the Evenki language. There was one other film that I wrote about last year called "The Evil Spirit of Zambuya" that has some Evenki in it.
The film is set in Evenkiya, in the village of Nidim, which is near Tura, the capital of Evenkiya. The hero is a boy who raises a wolf cub that his father gave him. He tames the wolf, but the wolf is persecuted by the other Evenki in the village. Some grow to like the wolf, others try to kill it.
The film has become a valuable piece of cultural heritage for Evenki people. The clothes, all traditional Evenki, were all daily standard dress. Everybody in the community spoke Evenki. There were reindeer herders. There was an Evenki wedding in the movie too. All of the actors were local people, not professionals.
It was actually an accident that the movie is in Evenki. Originally they filmed it in Russian, but the actors were very unnatural. When they were allowed to act in Evenki it was natural and flowed. There very nearly was never a film in the Evenki language.
The film conjures up romantic notions of a traditional life style. I acknowledge that these are romantic notions. But at the same time, i have long wanted to spend time with the reindeer herders. Both Yura and Alona have tried to discourage me saying it would be too hard for me. I know that they think of me as a soft city dweller. I explained to Yura again today, that if it is something that God wants me to do, he will help me. I don't know what to think of the fact that they think our mutual friend J (an American who is out living with the reindeer herd right now) is so capable, but I am not. It certainly knocks at my self esteem and what they think of me.
Part of me feels that I have to go out there just to see it for myself. At the very least it would help me understand their culture better. March is the best time to go. Perhaps I will go then?
Have a look here at some clips from the film. This first clip is a selection of scenes that summarises the movie:
This next clip is a full 9 minutes of consecutive scenes from the film:
Unfortunately the film can not be watched without dubbing, but still a lot of the Evenki language can be heard. This is unfortunate for Evenki people, that there is not a version that can be watched only in Evenki, but then as many younger people don't know the language well, they can still understand it while hearing some of their traditional language too. English and French audio is also available. Many other languages have subtitles.
4 comments:
I wonder.... I know many of the old overdubbed films only have Russian on the one channel. I know this because I have watched some on an old tv that allowed me to do right/left balance. The right had one language and the left had the other. Something for you to experiment with?
I'll be sure to give that a shot! I wonder?
Probably would only work with an older analog copy I think. Good luck!
I don't have any right/ left balance as such. Both languages are on both left and right. It doesn't work. But a lot of the time the English dubbing does not interefere with the Evenki language spoken by the actors.
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