Review: ‘Tulpan’

Asa is a young Kazakh sailor just returning home from his time serving in the Russian Navy. Once home, he finds himself living with his sister and her bullish older husband who works as a sheep herdsman. Asa’s brother-in-law reluctantly attempts to help find him a nice girl to be his bride, but on the vast, flat and barren steppe in which they live, available women are few and far between.

‘Tulpan’ is a bare bones film, shot with the same documentary-quality, cinema verite style that so many films from this region employ to heighten the sense of the story as reality. While the film looks very familiar in this sense, it’s not to say that the film is boring or without merit. The movie tells a curious story about a young man trying to find the path to his dream.

The title of the film refers to a beautiful young woman named Tulpan, whom we the audience never actually see directly, as she is very shy and whose parents serve as a filter in the courting process. Asa hopes to make Tulpan his bride, which in turn woul mean he could take over as herdsman of his own flock of sheep and put him on his way to the life he dreams of living on the steppe.

There’s only one problem. Tulpan doesn’t want to marry Asa, as she has her own idea of where her life is going. This frustrated Asa as she is the only available young woman in the area and he cannot acquire a flock of his own without being married. Combined with the added stress brought upon him from his brother-in-law, Asa finds himself struggling with whether to stick it our on the steppe, living with his sister, or if he should return to the city and try making a life for himself there.

Even though the landscape of ‘Tulpan’ is devoid of features and is endless in it’s miles of vast dusty flat terrain, sprinkled with puny clumps of desert weed, the setting has a sort of magical quality to it’s solemn lonely appearance. In a way, Asa and his family are alone in this windy, dry wasteland, occasionally creating subtle surreal natural imagery. Dust devils, kicked up by high winds, frequently are shown in ‘Tulpan’ perhaps representing a metaphor for the turbulence felt in the family.

The life, death and keeping of the sheep in their herd becomes a central element in ‘Tulpan’ that binds the story together and serves as a source of inspiration and education for Asa as he sorts out his life. In the end, Asa has a powerful moment focused around one of the sheep from their herd that results in his seeing life clearly for the first time.

‘Tulpan’ is a charming story placed within a region of the world few of us are familiar with. The pace of the film is somewhat slow and laid back, much like the life the characters live, but is still engaging. The actors who portray the characters manage to instill interest from the viewer in their lives, enough to care about how things will turn out for them. ‘Tulpan’ will not appeal to everyone, but for the audience interested in experiencing life in other, less modernized regions of the world with cultures different from our own.