More kudos for 'big ears' film
2008-05-25 16:25
Cannes - Kazakh movieTulpan, in which an aspiring shepherd's big ears are compared with those of Prince Charles, on Sunday bagged its third prize at the Cannes film festival.
Set in the wilds of Kazakhstan's steppes, the movie was named best film of Cannes' official "Un Certain Regard" parallel section, which groups original movies and this year offered 20 works from across the globe.
It also gained added notoriety by winning a French Education Ministry prize, guaranteeing it will be seen by students, as well as a French youth award.
A first feature-length film by Sergey Dvortsevoy, it is about a young man returning to the steppe after completing his military service in the hope of leading a nomadic life as a shepherd.
Light-hearted comedy
But Asa must first marry and his potential bride, Tulpan, thinks his ears are too big.
A light-hearted comedy that features camels as well as sheep, Asa's friend tries to convince the bride's parents his ears are normal-sized by showing them a picture of Britain's Prince Charles.
"Is he an African prince?" they ask. "No, American," he replies.
Tulpan brims with weird and wonderful moments such as a vet being pursued by a female camel as he speeds across the wilds carrying her bandaged baby in his side-car.
"It's a universal film," Dvortsevoy old AFP. "There's nothing more universal than having dreams."
He said the film aimed to show that "a nomad's life today and in the past is intense as the life of city-dwellers".
It took him four years to complete the movie due to the tough terrain and having to film more than 500km away from any town, he added.
"The hardest bit," he added, "was making sure that the actors and I be as good the animals".