Tulpan  Directed by Sergei Dvortsevoy  Written by Sergei Dvortsevoy;  Gennadi Ostrovsky   Starring Tolepbergen Baisakalov (Boni); Ondas Besikbasov (Ondas); Samal Esljamova (Samal); Askhat Kuchenerov (Askhat); Bereke Turganbayev (Beke)

Taking place in the barren Hunger Steppe in Kazakhstan, Tulpan stars Askhat Kuchenerov as Asa, a young man recently released from the Russian navy, who returns to his homeland with aspirations of becoming a shepherd with his own flock, and finding a wife. To his chagrin, however, the object of his affection, Tulpan, wants nothing to do with him, reportedly because of his over-sized ears. To make matters worse, he is stuck living in a primitive yurt with his empathetic sister, Samal (Samal Esljamova), her nearly silent husband Ondas (Ondas Besikbasov), and their three children. Asa works with brother in-law Ondas tending to his sheep,  but Ondas considers him something of a fool, and belittles him at every pass. The film manages to walk an interesting tonal line, blending documentary-like realism with whimsical comedy, drama, and sentimentality. The film takes us to a rural, isolated part of the world, giving us a taste of the sparse existence of its residents, who live in a place where a transistor radio stands out as being one of the few available modern conveniences. While the story, at times, mirrors the bleakness of the land, there are also plenty of moments of levity and heartfelt emotion. The non-professional actors, mostly going by their real life names, are excellent, and forty six year old writer/director Dvortsevoy, an established documentarian,  demonstrates a sure hand with his first narrative feature, delivering an outstanding cinematic achievement. Director and actors actually lived in this environment for months, which obviously contributed to the authentic sense of place. One of the best films of the year.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 at 10:14 pm and is filed under On DVD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.