Synopsis

Having completed his military service, young sailor Asa comes back home from his life on the high seas which he is willing to exchange for a simple and happy family life as a nomad in the Kazakh steppes from now on. At least, that is what he had planned – but life takes him through twists and turns and doesn’t stick to a plan at all: For young men won’t get a flock of sheep without a wife, and with his large and prominent ears Asa won’t get a wife – or in his case: Tulpan, the only single girl at an appropriate age far and wide. But for her, in turn, Asas big and protruding ears are an absolutely insurmountable no-go. However, Asa is not quite ready to give up so quickly.

To capture the calm everyday life of his home, Sergey Dvortsevoy actually interrupts the plot line of his first and numerously awarded full-length feature film to add seemingly documentary pictures of the nomadic people’s everyday surroundings. Shooting only with a hand camera, he stays really close to the people and animals, increasing this effect even further with the use of reduced editing. Tulpan is a likeable, entertaining romance and even a “boundlessly enjoyable comedy” (The Herald Sun) that connects documentary and fiction with breathtaking insights into the far present of an old life style.