Galway Film Society

Tulpan

The traditional lifestyle of nomadic sheep herders on the harsh Kazakh steppe provides quietly sensational drama in Tulpan, the feature debut of Kazakh-born documaker extraordinaire Sergey Dvortsevoy. An engrossing tale of a 20-ish youth who can't achieve a long-cherished dream of tending his own flock without first acquiring a wife. Recently discharged from the Russian navy, Asa, together with his boisterous best buddy Boni, calls on the only family in miles with an eligible daughter, the eponymous Tulpan (whose name means "tulip"). Hoping to leave the steppe and go to college, she tells her parents to refuse him, claiming it's because his ears are too big. The crestfallen Asa finds his dream further deflated when he proves to lack a natural instinct for herding, yet he persists at both courtship and animal husbandry. Preserving an organic mix of naturalism and poetry, the director manages to make the sounds, smells and simple pleasures of the steppe palpable and offers a fascinating mixture of ethnographic detail, gentle humour and spectacular cinematography.

Winner - Un Certain Regard Prize, Cannes Film Festival 2008
Winner – East of West Prize, Karlovy Vary Film Festival 2008