Lettre de Sibérie (1957)

"I’m writing you this letter from the edge of the world. According to a Siberian proverb, the forest was made by the devil. The devil did a good job, his forest is as big as the United States of America. But maybe the devil made the United States too."

Using a letter from Siberia as its launching pad, this visionary film takes off in different directions.
It is a hard film to categorize? at first a documentary although a lot closer to the mark, an essay documented by film. It becomes a travelogue, then an animated cartoon, then a philosophical tract with sharp satirical jibes at everything from America to Soviet politics and along the way accompanied with marvellous traditional folk music.
Marker's self-styled Intellectual Leftism is very much in the forefront throughout the film, he crafted a unique & distinctive style of inquisitive and offbeat cultural reportage.
Marker sits among the most innovative & imaginative visual artists in the history of cinema, he was was one of the medium’s finest writers, the greatest exponent of the ‘essay film’, his witty, insightful, richly exploratory and moving texts are thought provoking, educational, stimulating entertainment.

I was overcome with emotion with the opening shot!
Highly Recommended!

Herzog's, Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010) is an interesting film but falls well short of the depth and breadth of Lettre de Sibérie.