Something to watch tonight: Friday 7 February

The Monk and the Gun (Dorji, 2023)

I swear I won’t be using this newsletter to make daily veiled comments about current global political events but when I saw that this delightful story about the birth of democracy in the tiny nation of Bhutan was now generally accessible in Aotearoa, I felt like I needed to recommend it to you.

It screened in last year’s New Zealand International Film Festival along with a documentary about Bhutan’s choice to prioritise the measurement of Gross National Happiness instead of Gross Domestic Product. That’s called Agent of Happiness and it’s not available in New Zealand but can be streamed on SBS in Australia.

Much easier to follow – if only because the central premise is repeated often by various characters – is this delightful movie about the birth of democracy in Bhutan. In 2006, the king of this tiny Himalayan nation – realising that the modern world couldn’t and shouldn’t be kept at bay any longer – announced that he was stepping down as absolute ruler and introducing parliamentary democracy.

Pawo Choyning Dorji’s film is set during those early days when the people of Bhutan had to be taught how to vote. And why to vote. In 2006, election officials are touring the country to run mock elections, where the newly enfranchised citizenry can practice posting ballots.

But not everyone is happy at these developments. Party politics starts dividing families and communities. A local lama asks one of his monks to go and find a gun from somewhere so that “things can be made right”. The only firearm to be found is an antique American Civil War rifle but it turns out that there’s also an American collector in town determined to secure it for himself.

Utterly charming, as slow moving as you might imagine, but still deftly constructed, it was a pleasure to see democracy not taken for granted for a change.

Also featured in that RNZ preview of the 2024 NZIFF: The Teacher’s Lounge, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus, In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon, The Beast and Sasquatch Sunset.