ASTANA – Would you spend nearly two weeks following one of the slowest creatures on Earth? British director Saxon Bosworth did exactly that, traveling to the Ustyurt Plateau in western Kazakhstan to capture the life of the Central Asian tortoise, a creature whose entire visible world unfolds in just a few months each year.
The film, called “ TASBAQA,” which means a tortoise in Kazakh, follows a Central Asian tortoise, a species endemic to the region and listed in the Red Book, as it emerges from months of brumation on the Ustyurt Plateau. Through close, patient observation, it traces the animal’s brief active season, when feeding, mating and survival must all unfold within a matter of weeks.
Bosworth spend 12 days in isolation with the team and four days completely alone. That experience, he noted, allowed him to find a “new sense of peace.” British director Saxon Bosworth. Photo credit: The Astana Times “There is a multitude of things that start to happen to your brain when you are disconnected from your phone, disconnected from anybody that you know,” Bosworth said, sitting in a hotel lobby in Astana and speaking to The Astana Times.
“Of those 12 days, four days were spent following what became the main character: one specific tortoise. On those days, I spent quite a lot of that time completely alone, just me and that one tortoise,” he added. “Those four days in particular allowed me to connect to the tempo of the tortoise’s life,” he said.
“I would say that it did allow me to find a new sense of peace.” Despite carrying tents, Bosworth rarely used them. One night, he chose instead to sleep under the open sky on the Ustyurt Plateau. Despite middle of March, when temperatures get quite low, Bosworth said it was “charming.” “As I was falling asleep, I could just feel the wind playing with my hair a little bit.
Then I wake up and it is maybe two or three in the morning. The wind, because the Ustyurt is famous for its wind, it was just battering us,” he recalls. “That felt less cozy, but still a great experience.” Most nights, the team stayed in simple ranger stations: a small house at one station, and portable trailers at others, largely empty during the expedition.
What he witnessed on the Ustyurt Plateau left a lasting impression. When Bosworth describes the tortoise as a symbol of resilience, he is referring to a life shaped by extremes. Summers where temperatures reach 50 degrees Celsius, winters dropping to minus 40, and a landscape with no permanent freshwater sources.
In such conditions, survival depends on adaptation. Central Asian tortoise. Photo credit: decouvrirlavie.com