Steppe to it

Sergei Dvortsevoy’s Tulpan is not only an
ethnographer’s dream, it’s a nearly perfect film

KAZAKH REVELATION: Tulpan

by CHRISTOPHER SYKES

Winner of the Louve d’Or at last year’s Festival du Nouveau Cinéma as well as the Prix Un Certain Regard at the 2008 edition of Cannes, critics have been flush with praise for Tulpan, the chronicle of a nomadic Kazakh and his search for a wife.

Tulpan revolves largely around Asa (Askhat Kuchencherekov), a hapless young Kazakh who’s recently finished his military service with the Russian navy. Having returned to help his sister Sama’s (Samal Esljamova) family with their livestock, Kuchencherekov is soon of the opinion that he’s ready for this own herd. His ornery brother-in-law Ondas (Ondas Besikbasov), himself an able shepherd, contests that he knows little of the trade and must first take a wife to share the gruelling burden. Understandably, this is no small task for a nomadic shepherd.

Set in what is known as the Hunger Steppe, the seemingly endless, desert-like sprawl of inhospitable tundra in Southern Kazakhstan, some 500 kilometres from the nearest town, the vast expanses in Tulpan become one of the most telling characters in the film. Just as Asa and the livestock he wishes to herd are in constant battle with the elements, so too is the very ground they walk upon. The winds whip across the barren tundra in much the same way as the arctic gales in The Fast Runner provide further hardships for that film’s protagonist, Atanarjuat.

Dvortsevoy and DOP Jolanta Dylewska have gone to the greatest lengths to capture the gravity of this environment. As the actors corral the herd in order to tie markers on the sheep that will soon calve, a massive thunderstorm brews in the background, soon to spew forth forks of lightning upon the nomads. In a film as meticulously planned and scripted as Tulpan (it was shot on-and-off over a period of three years), nothing is left to chance.

It may seem excessive to christen Dvortsevoy a filmmaker’s filmmaker after only his first feature. That is, until you’ve seen it. A remarkable example of observational cinema, Tulpan is also surprisingly funny, thanks to the strength of performances by its cast members. Make sure you take the opportunity to catch it: it’s as close to perfection as you will see all year.

TULPAN OPENS THIS FRIDAY, JUNE 19