“Astonishing . . . a spectacular, unclassifiable immersion in the daily life of nomad sheepherders working the awesome emptiness of the Kazakh steppe.” —Village Voice
The Walker Art Center’s ongoing series Premieres: First Look continues with the area’s exclusive engagement of Sergey Dvortsevoy’s award-winning
Tulpan
, May 8–10 (Friday, May 8, 7:30 pm; Saturday, May 9, 2 and 7:30 pm; Sunday, May 10, 2 pm). In his engaging first feature set on the remote Hunger Steppe of southern Kazakhstan, writer-director Dvortsevoy creates a charming tale of unrequited love that the New York Film Festival calls “as comic as it is awe-inspiring.” Returning home after serving time in the Russian naval service, sweet but hapless Asa is desperate to arrange a marriage with the only available female in the village. His future depends on his marital status, as he won’t be entrusted with a herd until he has a wife. This coming-of-age film is imbued with humor reflecting a universal tale of the challenges of becoming a man. Winner of the Un Certain Regard Award at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. 2008, 35mm, in Kazakh and Russian with English subtitles, 100 minutes.
Born in Kazakhstan, Sergey Dvortsevoy worked as an aviation engineer before studying film in Moscow in the early 1990s. His films immediately garnered international acclaim, receiving prizes and recognition at festivals around the world, including the nomination of Bread Day (1998) for the prestigious Joris Ivens Award at the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival. The following year his work was presented at the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, an institution dedicated to Flaherty’s adherence to the goal of seeing and depicting the human condition. Intimate and elegant, Dvortsevoy’s documentaries are committed to observational filmmaking. His subjects—people living in and around a Russia in transition—try in their individual ways to eke out an existence. With a keen eye for the poetry and mystery of everyday life, and without narration or other forms of external exposition, Dvortsevoy proposes: “observe together with me quietly and everything will happen.”
Tickets to Tulpan are $8 ($6 Walker members) and are available at walkerart.org/tickets or by calling 612.375.7600. Screenings take place in the Walker Cinema.
