KZBlog

So I finally saw Tulpan. I don’t want to post any spoilers, so I’ll keep my observations general.

I thought it was a great movie, definitely one of the best to come out of independent Kazakhstan. However it was not what I expected. In earlier posts I had given the impression that it was a roll in the aisles comedy. Looking back on reviews I read, I’m not sure where I got that idea. It has some funny moments and it’s lighthearted–especially compared to a lot of Kazakh films which tend to be heavy handed and dramatic. But it also has some dramatic touches and the overall story of a sailor from Russia trying to fit in on the steppe is touching. Particularly his attempts to seduce the only women who lives anywhere near him, Tulpan.

Most interestingly, the film shows life in the steppe of Karaganda in modern times. The main characters live in a yurt in the middle of nowhere. Literally, there’s no one else around. They herd sheep, and during the movie they are suffering from a plague of still-borns. There’s one one truck that serves the entire steppes to bring feed or fertilizer or goods-and it’s a jerry-rigged tractor that keeps breaking down. They are certainly not well off. Yet they are not portrayed either as pitiful or as noble in their suffering. In fact they don’t appear to be suffer. It’s a very straightforward look at real life that few films outside of documentaries can achieve. In fact, most documentaries don’t manage to show their subjects this directly and unbiasedly.

Another wonderful facet of the direction is the way the camera doesn’t always focus directly on the main subject. There’s a great scene of a veterinarian examining another still-born and talking to someone who keeps following him. Eventually the camera pans out and we see a camel screaming at him. In this way, you feel you are in the scene, because you don’t have an omniscient point of view. This technique of keeping something off camera is also used to great comedic or dramatic effect in some scenes.

That being said, some might be put off by the lack of plot. There is a plot of sorts but the film is not driven by it. One result of this is that there are many scenes of the family in the yurt, doing very little and certainly not moving the plot forward or entertaining the viewer in some way. However it’s an effective device once again to show what life is really like on the steppes of Kazakhstan. There’s a wonderful series of recurring devices–a little girl singing, a boy listening to the radio–that again make the audience feel present in the moment.

In short, I highly recommend getting Tulpan and checking it out!