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Paul Simon would likely describe Arsin (Yesl Jahseleh), the young Kazakh boy at the center of Jing Yi’s feature debut “The Botanist,” as the only living boy in Xinjiang. Lonely and introspective, Arsin spends most of his time wandering around his remote village amongst its flora. When he’s not collecting plant samples for his personal collection, he looks after his grandmother and helps his disgraced older brother (Jalen Nurdaolet) herd sheep in the hills. Most of the time, however, Arsin lives in a rich interior world where his deep connection to nature and memories of departed family, especially his beloved missing uncle, are inextricably bound.

“The Botanist” embraces nomadic Kazakh beliefs about dead souls continuing to live within the natural world, one of the film’s many liminalities. Arsin’s frequent bouts of sleepwalking keep him in a perpetual dreamlike state. He and his family live in a...