Tulpan

Recently discharged from the navy, Asa arrives in the barren regions of southern Kazakhstan. The first thing one needs for life on the plains is a good wife, and this is what Asa attempts to find. Only one potential bride lives nearby, named Tulpan, but she refuses the match, claiming that Asa’s ears stick out too much. Meanwhile, he helps out at her sister’s farm, where she lives with her husband, and their four children. But being a sailor doesn’t exactly prepare you for a shepherd’s life, and Asa’s ineptness in this field creates constant conflict with his unsympathetic brother-in-law. In his first feature film, Sergey Dvortsevoy uses his documentary experience to present a light story using poetic and ethnographic techniques. The result a most enjoyable work, full of humanity. You will feel for the protagonist in his disappointments, and find yourself smiling broadly more than a few times. In short, this is just the kind of film many of us want to see, not only at festivals but in commercial theaters, too. Some have compared Tulpan to Story of the Weeping Camel (and yes, there is a female camel with personality in this film, too) but in all respects, cinematic and humanistic, this is a more mature film, and from its fundamental modesty, a true cinematic gem emerges.