Sergey Dvortsevoy makes his international debut with this astonishingly intimate portrait of a nomadic family on the Kazakh plains. Several scenes in this slow, elegant film betray a certain dry humor -- a child devouring the last of a bowl of yogurt and then crying; a cow getting its head stuck in a pail; and a woman singing to herself, accompanied by her snoring husband. Other scenes capture the nomads' hardscrabble lives -- drunken herdsmen in the grips of existential despair, growling dogs, and a camel enduring a rather grim septum piercing. By the end of the film, the family pulls up stakes and herds its sundry four-legged beasts -- camels, cattle, goats, dogs, and horses -- to a more fertile plain. This film was screened at the 1999 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival.
Where to watch
Not streaming anywhere
Not on any streaming service in United States, and not available to rent.
Your rating
Your review
Sergei Dvortsevoy Director · Gennadiy Popov Cinematographer Gennadiy Popov Production designer
First release March 7, 1995 · Produced in Kazakhstan, Russia · Languages Kazakh, Russian
Production
Kazakhfilm Studios
Production
VKSR
Production
Kazakhstan · Russia
Produced in
Languages
Original title
Счастье
Original language
Kazakh
Spoken on screen
Kazakh · Russian
Release dates
Switzerland · March 7, 1995
Theatrical
No release date listed for United States.
More from Sergei Dvortsevoy
Other films they directed, best known first.
If you liked Paradise
Picks that share its genres, themes, cast and crew.
Some details come from TheTVDB.