Modern luxuries hold little appeal for Asa, who’d prefer to get married, settle down and raise a flock of sheep.

Tulpan

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Tulpan is a film where very little happens and it happens very slowly. Its pace is downright glacial and anyone looking for a 100-minute diversion with a plot that steadily advances from point A to B would do well to steer clear. Those with the patience to let the film move at its own pace and no real concern about its ultimate destination will find reason to be fascinated.

Set in the barren desert of a Kazakhstan steppe, Tulpan follows Asa (Askhat Kuchencherekov), a sailor recently returned from duty to the yurt of his sister’s family. Unlike most of the youth surrounding him, Asa doesn’t dream of setting off for a new life of non-back-breaking labour and moderate comforts in the city, but instead wishes to acquire his own flock of sheep and live a simple life as a nomadic shepherd like his brother-in-law Ondas (Ondas Besikbasov). To do so, though, he must get married. Unfortunately the only girl his age in the area is the titular Tulpan, whose family is against the union. While trying to win over Tulpan, Asa must also deal with Ondas’s criticism of his suitability as a shepherd when the family’s flock produces a series of stillbirths.

The plot is fairly thin to begin with and it’s often forgotten for long stretches, though not necessarily to the film’s detriment. Before making Tulpan, director and co-writer Sergei Dvortsevoy created several documentaries and that experience shows strongly here. The film never feels like a creation. Instead it’s as if Dvortsevoy and director of photography Jolanta Dylewska were rendered invisible, dropped into the home of a real rural Kazak family and set about capturing the hardships, moments of levity and day-to-day drudgery they endure. Everything seems completely genuine, from the pointless bickering amongst siblings to the constant bleating of livestock that soundtracks the film. It’s a powerful bit of filmmaking that leaves Tulpan with less artifice than audiences are likely to find in another fictitious work.

While this documentary-like approach makes the harsh realities, unforgiving environment and uneasy family situation seem wondrously real, it will also turn some viewers off. After introducing Asa’s girl troubles, Dvortsevoy lingers over an extended scene of Asa and Ondas attempting to herd and mark their sheep for almost half an hour. This scene beautifully illustrates the region’s dust-swept, hostile climate and the unglamorous life Asa desires, but is uncomfortably plodding.

Tulpan has been a resounding success critically, picking up glowing reviews as well as awards at film festivals in Cannes, Tokyo, Montreal and Zurich among others, and it’s easy to see why. Dvortsevoy blurs the line between documentary and narrative filmmaking so successfully that it’s almost easier to believe the events on the screen are real than it is to see them as scripted directions. Those looking for conventional entertainment should definitely look elsewhere, though.