Tulpan

This film, set in and really all about the steppes of Kazakhstan, is a curious bit of cinema, one that is certainly worth watching, generally something a little different.
The first thing we thought about this film is the strange discontinuity in the very camerawork. It is shot in a narrow ratio, and follows, in very much a handheld, at home, and indeed probably not all too expensive manner, personal stories. Yet, it is set in these huge, barren, wide, horizontal steppes. It even has pretensions to capture this landscape; and here the tension lies, because it can't quite capture that.
The film uses some nice long shots, slow camerwork, that really lets the animal and the yurts come out. The fact that the singing and the little child are so incredibly annoying is either a price we have to pay, or deliberate.
The actual plot, the relationships of the family itself, are kept extremely opaque. Frankly, we're still not entirely sure what the relationships between the characters are. The use of the concept of the women, Tulpan, gives us some of the few personal moments, in a film that is more about the object than the subject.
The wider socio-political reality of the situation is an interesting one. There are elements of the outside intruding here; we can't escape from the fact that there is a certain level of stupidity in the lifestyles that we see, this is more than just simple rural bucolia. The floating camera work means that we, again, don't have a particularly personal film, but this does, on the other hand, allow some nice shots to be picked out, that fit well with the politics. A smart move in this is the few moves we have to the lead female; she is almost representative of a wider injustice, the stabs of outside values on this inward-looking world.
There are some amazing scenes; early morning sun, slow, slow scenes that twist with the wind. There is an incredible, aching scene (the physical apex of the film) where the lamb is borne; an amazing film, only available in this ind of low-budget work.
A really interesting film, not completely stunning due to certain camera constraints, but one of those that are always worth seeing.