The Monk and the Gun

2006, Bhutan. The king is stepping down and the country is moving to democracy. Nobody knows what voting is, and the government organises mock elections in the villages; people are taught what it is to choose a party, to campaign and to argue. In the same days an American arrives; he is looking for an old rifle and is ready to pay a collector's price. A lama at a mountain monastery asks his student to find him two guns. He does not say what for. Pawo Choyning Dorji writes and directs. It is a Bhutanese production. The film was submitted as Bhutan's entry for the Oscars and was widely shown internationally. The process behind the narrative is real: the mock and actual elections held in Bhutan in 2007 and 2008 were the country's first votes. The opposition it builds is between the gun and the ceremony, and by the end the narrative turns over what each of those things is used for. Its political stance is careful; it is not against democracy but shows the division that came with it directly. The village scenes were shot in real locations, largely with non-professional actors. The humour is quiet and comes from cultural difference; the film makes neither side ridiculous. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet, humorous art cinema. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, little happens, and the narrative states its message plainly in the last section.