Evenkia, Siberia, filming the teaser:
The sun has gone down, slowly, as it should on the North. Last glance at the thermometer: -37C. Clear sky, it is going to drop to -40C by the morning. Not the weather for camping, I think, when I enter our run-down Russian-style military tent. For a couple of weeks this is my home that I share with a lovely Evenki family, the nomadic people of the Siberian taiga. They have traditional reindeer skin tent too, but prefer to use this leaky ugly tarp, because this gets dirty slower. This is a practical decision, like everything else here…
Inside, Vladimir is keeping the fire alive in the rusty iron stove. He is 65 years old and having spent all his life in the forest hasn’t yet mastered this indoor fire. Well, at least on the first night when he is feeding the fire half asleep trying to keep the tent and the guests warm. Despite the fire the nights are freezing, I realize this when a strange noise wakes me up, it is the sound of the loudly chattering teeth of my interpreter Igor.
Some days earlier we had a surreal flight here on the board of a MI8 Russian helicopter: Having to squeeze ourselves in the plane next to the other cargo – a large coffin. As we flew over the white frozen landscape it was hard to imagine that there are people living in this cold endless sea of trees.
But for four years old Masha, the granddaughter and the central character our would-be film, this is home and a large playground as well. Now, in March it was never warmer than -15C and this tiny girl is out all day long wearing only some pullovers. Many times the feeling comes upon me that I should put my polar jacket on her, but it seems she is fine in this natural deep freezer.
On the last night, as I lie in my warm sleeping bag I think about this family and the place where they live. But my thoughts are interrupted: I need to go outside an answer the call of nature. I am too lazy to put on all the warm clothes I need and I leave the safety of the tent. Immediately feel that I made a mistake. The cold grips my chest and I almost hear as it bites my lung.
But there’s another thing: panic.
Which direction did I came from…?! It’s a labyrinth of reindeer trails in the deep snow swallowed by the darkness. Hey, I don’t want to become the hero of the next Evenki legend about a crazy Hungarian who never found his way back to the tent!!
Suddenly a dog barks up. Ugh! The tents are only a few meters away.
Before we say goodbye to Vladimir he assures me that he will help us to make a beautiful film because the world has to see how the Evenkis’ life as they see “the life of African bushmen”.
I am very surprised: “Bushmen?! “
It turns out that he is watching “Dyeeskavery Channel” via satellite on the rare occasions when he visits the village.
I have to remind myself that the world is getting smaller and smaller. But also that I am talking to a grandfather probably from the last nomadic family of this vast area. I want the whole world to see this fantastic man – just the same way as he is watching the Bushmen of Namibia on television in the middle of Siberia!

Zoltan Török,
Ekonda, Siberia, 2006

The Making of Otter Man or the story of a confused filmmaker

I thought this was going to be the easiest film project I have ever made: a wildlife and portrait film in my home country, Hungary.
As a nature film maker, I used to travel to the remotest places of the planet with enormous equipment. In comparison with such shoots jumping into my car and driving to a relatively close place that I know pretty well seemed to be an easy task.
And moreover in this case I had plenty of time: almost a full year!

Well, I just could not have made a bigger mistake…

As a sort of warning we already had a difficult start. This was the story of a man who saved otters from extinction in Hungary. He used to go out tracking these secretive animals in wintertime. We pictured the first scene in a beautiful snowy landscape and our protagonist looking for otter footprints in the fresh snow. But the winter of 2006/2007 turned to be the warmest one in the past 120 years!! There hasn’t been a single snowflake at all!! I decided to give up waiting for the start in March when still no one has seen any snow clouds on the sky of Hungary – and I went to re-write the screenplay.
But there was a bigger problem… We wanted to present the story of a little otter pup that we would have followed throughout the year until they release the animal back to the wilderness. Usually they find at least a dozen orphaned otter pups in Hungary during wintertime. There is ice and they accidentally walk away from the den in this time of the year. But in this strange season temperature didn’t drop under zero at all.
Finally there was good news! (er… only for us, filmmakers – not for an otter family). Hikers found a little pup and she was rescued and ended up in a little zoo in the countryside.
So here we were: just about to leave for the first shoot when they decided to relocate the pup to an otter park! A woman, who was a beginner in raising otter pups, became her new nurse. Again, I went to re-write the screenplay…
Finally, besides our “otter-man” she became the other protagonist of the film, but at the beginning the two didn’t get along too well, having totally different views about raising wild animals – a pain for the director but actually good element in the story.
Then came a dramatic moment when it seemed that the little otter pup was going to die! Oh, my god, this was too much for me and the crew. I went to a countryside pub and started to think about filmmaking and the possibilities of starting another job over a glass of local red wine.
But, as one member from the producing crew said, there is sunshine after every rainshower. And there it was!
Finally this became a wonderful shoot, during which I have learnt a lot about my own country’s landscape and wildife… but also about the complexity of human relations. Moreover I must admit, the otter pup, Viki was the cutest creature I have ever filmed… and did she survive?
Well, we all love happy ends, don’t we?

Zoltan Török, Szigetmonostor, Hungary, 2007
PS: Breaking news! Viki the otter was released back into the wilderness at the end of the year 2008!