Insightful film about a changing lifestyle

I saw 'Tuplan' last night and was enthralled by the visual beauty of the film as well as the remarkable scenes of herding life in a changing world. Sheep, donkeys, horses, camels and tractors all in the same scene. A yurt with a radio, a dreamer who wants to live there on the Steppes and build a conventional house with running water and TV, run his herds and make a living in a place where the grass runs out half-way through the lambing season.

Usually movies like this are either emotionally attached to the 'romantic' past or despairing of the destruction of a lifestyle. I found 'Tulpan' to be remarkably unsentimental about the difficulties of herding in that region, while still managing to convey some of the beauty and poetry of the herding way of life. By granting the family the dignity of adopting technological change as it suited them, without making patronizing observations, I thought that we got a very good look at how the herders are living today, blending traditional activities with modern.

I found the family interactions interesting, too. Clearly the father was trying to be a traditional head of the household, but he did seem to have some good modern ideas, He indulged his children in small ways,although you could tell he craved some peace and quiet in that noisy yurt. His modern brother-in-law was a challenge, but he did eventually teach the young man to find his 'sticking place' and to face difficulty, loss and hard work. All he women were very admirable and quite independent. I especially loved that Tulpan's mother really wanted her to go away to college, rather than to marry a dirt-poor herder.

The scenes of the dead lambs and the ewe giving birth were hard to see, but I have helped out on a friend's farm during lambing and kidding season, and that's pretty much what you have to do and contend with. I remember lying down in the muck helping a difficult breech twin birth- you either do what you have to do, or you let the animal die. There's a choice here? And I think that that is one great point the movie makes- sometimes you put yourself into a situation and find that you are faced with tasks that you cannot refuse, although you want to very much.

Athene






"I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew..."