Dersu

There's been a while since I thought of writing something in English. I don't even know if this will be interesting for my "blue-eyed" friends or if my "out of practice English" will be worth it, but... Here you go.

For a long time, I have grown the habit of paying my debts with the so called seventh art. Actually, I got some credits with it. I met Bergman, Woody Allen (one of my favorites), Truffaut (my beloved one!), but... still I knew so little about the eastern movie-makers. So I decided to give it a try and dive into Kurosawa's imaginative scenery.

Yeah... I met a very sweet old man. A humble and simple hunter, but showing that kind of wisdom we seem to have lost while building skyscrapers and malls. Dersu didn't know to live in the city. He knew something different. He knew the nature. He could find his way back by following his footprints, he could forecast storms through the wind... He respected nature, and nature respected him. No big deal for someone who is used to living in the hills, maybe. Yeah... Maybe.

The greatest achievement of the movie that I see is to remind us of the beauty of human encounters. Two completely distinctive men that happen to be under the same circumstances as we all are under the sun. A respectable and intelligent man of the city on one side and a wise and strong man of the hills on the other.

Henceforth, Kurosawa goes beyond the encounter. The movie opens possibilities to a lot of metaphors... The desert, the fight for surviving difficult situations, the value of a helping hand...

I would say watching Dersu Uzala (Akira Kurosawa, 1975) is a good exercise to make us strong enough to handle the "Chronos tyrannical government" of our times. Just that... Stop and behold. What is good is never old.