Tulpan

Comedy, Kazakhstan/Russia/Germany/Poland/Switzerland 2008, 100 min, Russian and Kazakh with German subtitles

After a life at sea, Asa returns home to his family in the arid landscape of the Kazakh Steppes. Since Asa is single and his nomad family poor, they decide to marry him off. He dreams of owning his own herd of sheep, but that can only become a reality if his marriage is accompanied by a considerable dowry. His brother-in-law Ondas does his best to convince the parents of Tulpan, the only available nubile bride. But there is a problem: Tulpan does not like Asa’s jug ears, while Asa’s handling of sheep is anything but skillful. Yet Asa clings to his dream, battling his jug ears and the stubborn livestock. As the Frankfurter Rundschau put it, “The fact that the viewer does not feel lost, five hundred kilometers away from the nearest town, is down to two constants: the highly emotional plot and the director’s loyalty to the good old 35-millimeter film.“ Winner of the main prize in the series “Un certain regard“ at Cannes 2008.