Tulpan

Who would have thought a movie from Kazakhstan that didn't feature Borat could be so good?

Tulpan is about a young man, Asa, back from the navy ready to become a shepherd, find a wife, and most importantly gain his father's respect. And while he's at it, he likes cruising around the steppe with his buddy in their run down jeep blasting pop music.

Unfortunately, Asa isn't that great a shepherd, the woman of his affections, Tulpan, thinks his ears are too big, and his father doesn't give him any respect.

Every scene in this too short movie is great. In particular, I love every scene where Asa tries to woo Tulpan - which proves to be difficult since he never actually meets her face-to-face. There are a couple of scenes where his parents try to negotiate with her parents for a union while Tulpan checks Asa out from behind curtains. Later, he tries to impress her by visiting her unannounced.

But nothing beats the pure joy of the driving through the steppe scenes or the bittersweet ending. Asa is a great character - full of wanderlust for the big city but with the bigger dream of simply finding his place at home, on the steppe.

Check out the trailer.


Directed by Sergey Dvortsevoy
2009
DVD