Tulpan

Kazakhstan, Russia, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Italy

2008

100 Min

Color

1.85:1

Kazakh, Russian

Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
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PROD Karl Baumgartner, Thanassis Karathanos, Henryk Romanowski, Sergei Selyanov, Yelena Yatsura

SCR Sergei Dvortsevoy, Gennadi Ostrovsky

CAST Tolepbergen Baisakalov, Ondas Besikbasov, Samal Esljamova, Askhat Kuchencherekov

ED Petar Marković, Isabel Meier

SOUND Williams Schmit

Cannes (Un Certain Regard): Un Certain Regard Prize, London, Telluride, San Francisco, Karlovy Vary (East of the West): East of the West Award, São Paulo

Synopsis

After completing his naval service, young Asa travels back to the Kazakh steppe where his sister and her shepherd husband live a nomadic life. To start his new life, eager Asa must get married first before he can become a shepherd himself. Asa’s only hope for marriage on the deserted steppe is Tulpan, the daughter of another shepherd family. Poor Asa is disappointed to learn that Tulpan doesn’t like him because she thinks that his ears are too big. But Asa doesn’t give up and he continues to dream of a life that may not be possible on the steppe … —Festival de Cannes

Director

Sergei Dvortsevoy

Sergey Dvortsevoy (born in 1962) worked as an aviation engineer before studying film in Moscow in the early 1990s. His films immediately garnered international acclaim, receiving prizes and recognition at festivals around the world, including the nomination of Bread Day (1998) for the prestigious Joris Ivens Award at the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival. The following year his work was presented at the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, an institution dedicated to Flaherty’s adherence to the goal of seeing and depicting the human condition. Dvortsevoy’s documentaries are committed to observational filmmaking. His subjects — people living in and around a Russia in transition — try in their individual ways to eke out an existence. Tulpan is his first fiction film, which has been nominated into the 2009 Asia Pacific Screen Awards for Best Feature Film and Best Achievement in Directing. —Wikipedia

Wall

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ramosbarajas

22Jan13

Cinema without pretenses. Obviously, I don't know everything about the terrain, but it all rings true. It does not descend into sentimentalism or complete documentarism. It's the perfect mix of realism and drama. Films like this remind me why I love cinema and why cinema as art must be celebrated.

ramosbarajas

22Jan13

Films with huge budgets and access to resources should not mess up, and yet they do. Then little films with no money like this one come around and get it right, putting the rest to shame.

João Biscaia

12Jan13

This is one of those films that just makes your heart melt. It's a brilliant piece of filmmaking and it feels like Dvortsevoy is not even trying. And it's beautiful. I feel like watching a storm from afar, unfurling through the kazakh steppe. 5/5