The patriarch in road-trip drama Suleiman Mountain is a moodily charming con man with a gambling problem that drives him and his dysfunctional family through the Kyrgyzstan countryside as much as the Soviet-era truck they all call home. The matriarch is a religious woman who’s a swindler by marriage, earnest by trade, and shares her husband with a younger, pregnant second wife full of resentment about his divided attention and her situation. The former is willing to do anything it takes to remain in her position as first, if not preferred, wife, including hunting down her and her husband’s long-lost son (though what originally happened to him is never explained). Despite an ending that feels rushed and doesn’t fully address conflicts created at the film’s start, Suleiman Mountain is beautifully shot, poignantly wrought, and lovely overall.
Suleiman Mountain screens tonight and Sunday (May 18 and 20) at the 44th annual Seattle International Film Festival, which happens May 18-June 10. Showtimes for Suleiman Mountain here; more recommended SIFF films here; and all SIFF films here.
