Movies on the Map: The Monk and the Gun
This droll political comedy-drama captures the wonder and disruption as Bhutan becomes one of the world's youngest democracies.
This droll political comedy-drama captures the wonder and disruption as Bhutan becomes one of the world's youngest democracies.
Writer-director Pawo Choyning Dorji (Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom) explores the moment through a series of interlocking characters: Tashi, a naïve but resolute monk sent into the world on a strange mission; Benji and Ronald, two clumsy antique smugglers; Yangden, an ambitious bureaucrat overseeing the country's first mock elections; and Tshomo, a village mom who senses the damage politics is doing to her family.
As unfamiliar ways of being arrive to a traditional and seemingly happy and healthy society, people are asking themselves, how can we reconcile our spiritual and cultural values with modern, global life? Bhutan's entry for the Academy Awards is a funny, elegant and bittersweet tale elevated by the magnificent open-air cinematography by Jigme Tenzing.
