TULPAN

Kazakhstan, 2008, 100 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Sergei Dvortsevoy.

Out on the windy steppes of Kazakhstan, poor herdsman look after black sheep, moving their family and their tent around as they look for grazing land. Young men cannot own their own herd unless they are married and settled. A young sailor, whose sister is married to a herdsman, wants to marry and work with the sheep. He is a touch garrulous (and his food-delivering friend is worse) when his family confers with Tulpan’s family to arrange a marriage. Tulpan remains in the tent catching glimpses of him, not liking him, especially his big ears!

This is not necessarily the stuff of great drama. Rather, it is something of an ethnographic story where audiences who might know of the country only because of Borat and the reactions about his film have an opportunity to immerse themselves in the land and the life of the people.

Not a great deal happens but we get a feel for the situations and the characters and – and this does sound a bit strange on paper but it works well in the film – there is a very moving sequence as the young man, wanting to get away, comes across a lost pregnant sheep who has begun to give birth but is in difficulties. We cannot help but become really involved as the young man works hard for the delivery and the young lamb emerges, finds its feet and its mother.

Some years ago there were two quite moving films from Mongolia, The Story of the Weeping Camel and The Cave of the Yellow Dog. Tulpan is very much in this vein of storytelling and emotion. Tulpan also won the Un Certain Regard award for best film, Cannes 2008.

1.A film from Kazakhstan? Its European flavour and the links with Russia? Its Asian flavour?

2.The Kazakhstan perspective, the landscapes, the desert, the herds, the storms? The musical score?

3.The ethnographic aspects of the film, work in the desert, the herds, the difficulties, the trucks and deliveries, the family tent and life in the desert, the boss, his decisions, the vet, the difficulties with the animals, the camels, the focus on the birth of the lamb?

4.Asa and his proposal? The formality of the families meeting, sitting and discussing, Asa and his chatting about the navy, the stories about the octopus? The parents and their not being impressed? Ondas and his presiding over the meeting? Boni and his chatter? Tulpan not appearing, watching, her not liking Asa, comment on his ears?

5.The portrait of the family life, within the tent, the wife, her cooking, her concern? Asa as her brother? The boy, running around, playful, riding the broom as a horse? The girl and her singing? The older boy, listening to the news on the radio, repeating it for his father, his father’s admiration? The mother, the milk, the cooking?

6.Ondas and his work, his difficulties with Asa, with Boni? The fights, the domination? The work?

7.The second attempt for the marriage, the return, the stories, the sitting? The reaction of each of the parents? Tulpan and her watching? Asa and his going to the tent, his declarations of love? Their discussion, Tulpan and her wanting to study? His wanting to marry, having a herd, giving her the opportunity for distance learning?

8.The dispersed sheep, Ondas’s concern? The boss’s arrival, the vet and his examination of the animals? The possibility of moving, packing up, Asa going with the group, his anger and decision to go by himself?

9.His leaving, going into the desert, the discovery of the lamb? His helping the sheep to give birth? Taking the lamb back?

10.The new era for the family, Boni and his talking, Asa and the possibilities of other work, going to the city? Boni and his listening to the music – ‘By the Waters of Babylon’? Asa stopping?

11.Asa’s return – the possibility of a marriage, the possibility of his being a herdsman?

12.The audience being taken into this part of the world, unfamiliar, learning and respecting the people, experiencing their hard life and work?