Tulpan is a story of traditional sheep herders from the harsh Kazakh step. The main character, young Asa, desperately wants to follow in the footsteps of his relatives and have his own herd. In order to do that he has to marry a girl named Tulpan, who resents him because of his big ears. The movie combines dark humor with the drama of a disappearing part of the Kazakh culture

"Tulpan was very well received in Cannes," Agnieszka Odorowicz, the director of Polish Film Institute (PFI) told the Polish Press Agency. "I think it was the best movie in the Un Certain Regard Section. I had no doubts that it was going to win."

Since his debut in the 1990's, Kazakh-born Dvortsevoy has become one of the most important documentary directors in Russia and won over 50 film awards. His films Paradise (1995), Bread Day (1995), and Highway (1999) were acknowledged by international audiences as well as critics and awarded at prestigious film festivals in Amsterdam, Paris, Yamagata, and Nyon.

Tulpan was produced in 2006 in co-operation between Germany, Kazakchstan, Poland, Russia and Switzerland. The movie's total budget was €2,343,000 with €40,000 MEDIA funding from EU and €44,500 from the Polish Film Institute (www.pisf.pl). Germany's Pandora Films produced, along with from Germany and Cobra Film (Switzerland), Eurasia Film (Kazakhstan), Film Co. Slovo (Russia), CTB Filmproduction (Russia), Filmcontract (Poland), and Pallas Film (Germany). The international sales are managed by the Match Factory in Germany.