Tulpan
(Sergey Dvortsevoy): Askhat Kuchinchirekov, Samal Yeslyamova, Ondasyn Besikbasov, Tulepbergen Baisakalov, Bereke Turganbayev.
Running time: 100 minutes (12A)
Rating: 3.5/5

If The Story of the Weeping Camel was about a way of life on the Mongolian steppes, Tulpan is about its gradual erosion. It is a quiet drama of intense naturalism which rewards patient viewing. Kazakh documentary maker Sergey Dvortsevoy makes the leap into narrative cinema and he sets this in the wilderness of his native land. The steppes are a gift – their vastness is epic, yet their inhabitants in their ger tents offer dramatic intimacy. The story follows Asa (Askhat Kuchinchirekov), a former sailor who needs to marry in order to become a herdsman. Dvortsevoy leans on his style as a documentary filmmaker, but pours poetry into the realism. It is full of tender moments and rich characters, and the camera drinks in their subtle dynamics. It is an engagement with simplicity – an eye on that nexus where tradition is being pulled apart by modernity. But it never indulges in primitivism.