Film

'Tulpan': Coming of Age on the Steppes

    Numerous minor tornadoes whirl across the steppe in director Sergei Dvortsevoy's Kahzak-language film “Tulpan,” but no one seems to care. The wind, the tornadoes and the general squalor of life for a rural nomadic sheepherder in Kazakhstan is completely taken for granted, buried in the daily routine of eking out a living.    The average viewer, on the other hand, is more likely to be taken aback, but Mr. Dvortsevoy's film casually refuses to accept or even acknowledge its foreignness, which gives “Tulpan” a warm, natural feel that colors the mundane, sometimes disturbing reality on the steppe. It's unlikely that many viewers would enter into “Tulpan” with a rosy-hued vision of Kazakhstan, but the film gives us all of the unpleasant realities of nomadic life — constant blowing sand, filthy clothes, rotted teeth and cantankerous animals — while also giving us rare glimpses of the triumphs too, like the dramatic on-screen birth of a lamb that represents the film's highest dramatic peak.

'Sin Nombre': Finding Violence On The Tracks To Freedom

    It’s hard to believe that “Sin Nombre” is director Cary Fukunaga’s first feature, as he has created a haunting, serious film about immigration that is both beautifully shot and frighteningly accurate.
    “Sin Nombre” — as much about escaping one’s identity as it is about escaping one’s country — needs a fresh-faced young director to take on its strong themes, burdened as they are with real-time discussions about immigration. Mr. Fukunaga’s take far surpasses this year’s earlier disaster of an immigration movie, “Crossing Over,” starring Harrison Ford.
    And that’s probably where Mr. Fukunaga made his first smart move: casting relatively unknown Hispanic actors and filming completely in Spanish. The story is so real we can taste it, along with the dust and grime that rolls off the tracks of the train traveling through Mexico to “El Norte” — the United States — with hundreds of immigrants clinging to its back.