Tulpan

Asa returns to his home yurt in the Central Asian steppes of Kazakhstan after a stint in the Russian navy. He hopes to marry Tulpan, the sole maiden in the district, but she rejects him on account of his wide ears. One would then think the film would proceed down the well trodden path of unrequited love. But strangely the focus shifts to the life of shepherds on the steppes and thereby doing scant justice to either themes.

Rating: * +

Mongol

Tadanobu Asano is Temudjin, the man who would become the great Genghis Khan. Now why would anyone cast a Japanese as the greatest Mongol is a mystery. This film focuses on his early life as a slave and his struggle to rise and unite the Mongols. Temudjin is portrayed as compassionate and is yet to turn into the bloody Khan. A film that was expected to be bloody given the central character in question, but it turned out to be comparitively mellow. Hopefully that will be taken care of in the sequel to the film.

Rating: * *

Schizo

Mustafa a.k.a Schizo is kicked out of school because he his strange and slow. The rest of film shows that schizophrenia has not affected him much. After leaving school he signs on to scout for fighters for an underground fighting ring. One of the fighters he brings dies in the ring. Schizo takes it on himself to help the dead fighters family and soon gets intricately involved in their daily life.In spite of the simple and linear storyline, the film made out for some fine viewing.

Rating: * * +