Sergey Dvortsevoy's movie, set in the vast, featureless steppe of Kazakhstan, is a quiet little gem. It concerns an idealistic young guy called Asa, played by Askhat Kuchinchirekov, who has just been demobbed from the navy and now earnestly wishes to go into the family shepherding business.
To do this, he needs to get married, and he has in mind a young unmarried woman called Tulpan, whom he in fact has never seen. Despite lavish dowry offers from his family, Tulpan declines. The reason? Asa's ears are too big. It's a refusal that triggers an agony and a dilemma. Should Asa simply head for the city and try to make his fortune? What's the point of gouging a living out here anyway?
Passionately, Asa insists on his pastoral destiny and tries showing Tulpan's family photos of our very own Prince of Wales as a way of proving that the very best people have big ears. This is an eminently lovable film.
