Plot

On the steppes of Kazakhstan, Asa lives in a yurt with his sister Samal, her husband Ondas, and their three children. Ondas is a herdsman, tough and strong. It's dry, dusty, and windy; too many lambs are stillborn. Against this backdrop, Asa, a dreamer who's slight of build and recently finished with a stint in the Russian Navy, tries to establish a life on the steppes. He, his friend Boni, and Ondas call on Tulpan, the only single girl in the area. The men talk to her parents while she listens out of sight. Her answer and Asa's later trips to talk to her form an arc of hope against the harsh land. Is this the place of Asa's dreams? What about the other lambs?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Polished, funny and utterly charming, Kazakhstan director Sergey Dvortsevoy's first feature film. "Tulpan", which won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard sidebar at the Festival de Cannes, tells of a family not only surviving but also relishing the harsh life of sheep and goat herders on a barren landscape. A bittersweet side story involves a Russian naval cadet's failed attempt to win a closeted beauty (Tulpan) because she doesn't like his flappy ears. A good Steinbeckish account of 'stan herder life in a lonely urt far out on the windy Kazak plains. The irony of a submariner courting a landlocked lass named tulip is gently applied to this charming tale.