Tulpan

The documentary master Sergey Dvortsevoy is known for his unforgettable film In the Dark (2004), but his whole oeuvre of documentaries is most certainly recognisable in his first feature, a natural next step in his career. Dvortsevoy combines actors with amateur performers, uses understated humour and gives leading roles to local domestic animals. He tackles major themes based on small, apparently chance stories. In Tulpan, this is the dream of a better life for the former sailor Asa, who lives with his sister and brother-in-law as an assistant shepherd. Eager for an adult life with his own herd, he shall first have to find himself a bride. Life doesn't get any easier when Tulpan, the only nubile woman anywhere near, says his ears are too big and rejects him. He doesn't even get to see her. Dvortsevoy unfolds a warm-hearted comedy with a rough undertone. Natural laws predominate in the endless bare steppes, where people do not easily rule over the idiosyncratic nature of their herds. Dvortsevoy does not need any grand gestures. His sharp, ethnographic observations are not larded with pompous symbolism, but with liberating humour and powerful minor plot lines. All the actors are convincing with their own small worlds - worlds which come together again every evening under the yurt roof. (LC)