(Reviews of Crossing; Sleep; The Nature of Love; and Agent of Happiness)
CROSSING.
Raised in Sweden by Georgian parents of Turkish descent, Levan Akin is in the ideal position to assess how cultures clash and coalesce in his fourth feature, Crossing. Considering themes broached in his breakout sophomore outing, And Then We Danced (2019), this is an even bolder statement on the status of LGBTQIA+ communities in the transcontinental regions of South-East Europe.
Retired history teacher, Ms Lia (Mzia Arabuli), lives in the Georgian coastal city of Batumi. When her sister dies, she promises to find Tekla, the trans daughter who ran away from home because no one in the village accepted her. Hearing that she had been living in a beach cottage with some prostitutes, Lia asks a neighbour, who turns out to be her old student, Zaza (Levan Bochorishvili). He makes a big fuss of her and tells nursing wife, Ruso (Nino Karchava), to get out the best bottle. Half-brother Achi (Lucas Kankava) is desperate to get out of the city and tells Lia that Tekla gave him a forwarding address in Istanbul. Despite her misgivings, she agrees to let him escort her as a translator and he is so delighted that he steals Zaza's car to give Lia a lift home.
As she plans an early start, she invites him to stay the night and tells him to pick some tomatoes and cucumbers from next door's garden. She gulps down a glass of chacha brandy while informing Achi that he won't be allowed to drink or do drugs on the trip. He concurs and is amused when the neighbour kids give them a parting gift of some dip to go with the vegetables they had filched. On the coach, Achi throws up after scarfing free snacks, but he has recovered by the time they reach the border.
Surprised that Turkey is no different to Georgia, Achi warns Lia that she is being ripped off by the money-changer who buys her grandmother's gold bracelet. Needing cash for the trip, she takes what she gets and reminds Achi that she has no intention of mothering him, as she is on a mission. Chastised, he wakes her on the coach as they approach Istanbul, which she had visited as a girl with her father, and she buys him breakfast after he discovers that they need to take a ferry across the Bosphorus to get to the address.
A meandering travelling shot explores the boat, as Lia and Achi stand on the deck. Street kids Izzet (Bünyamin Değer) and Gülpembe (Sema Sultan Elekci) huddle together, as he strums a saz. On the deck above, Evrim (Deniz Dumanli) smokes a cigarette. She is a trans lawyer who volunteers for the Pink Life organisation. Having tried to mediate for a gay man being evicted by his landlord, she goes to the hospital to meet with Dr Erol (Mehmet Isyar) to collect the documents that legally register her change of gender. A ginger-and-white kitten clambers on to her lap for a stroke, as she sits in the waiting-room. The medic evidently disapproves of Evrim, as does one of the department heads who charges her for his required signature. But she perseveres, as she knows the importance of ticking all the boxes in a country with such a dim view of all LGBTQIA+ matters.
Spotting Lia and Achi asking for directions, Izzet and Gülpembe offer to guide them through the bustling district for five lira. Everyone knows them, as Izzet fends for himself during his mother's frequent absences and Gülpembe has become his unofficial sister. However, there is no sign of Tekla at the house run by Gülsen (Okşan Büyük) and Lia despairs of the seedy neighbourhood in which her niece had been staying.
Booking into a cheap hotel, Lia chugs down a chacha and makes Achi stand guard outside the bathroom while she showers. As they chat, she admits to not having seen Tekla for a long time and is ashamed for having bowed to village pressure to disown her. Achi asks about her plans and she explains she has nothing particular to live for: `I'm just here until I'm not.'
Unable to sleep because of the sex noises coming through the paper-thin walls, Achi goes for a wander. As he wants to stay in the city, he asks about jobs at the various street cafés and narrowly misses Evrim, who has been stood up for a date. Walking home, she is offered a lift by Ömer (Ziya Sudançıkmaz,
an unofficial taxi driver who tell her that they need to make up a story about being college friends going to a party in case they get stopped by the cops. They park for sex and she heads off to a party, to which Achi has been invited by Özge (Derya Günaydın), who had met him at the hotel. He guzzles down as much food and drink as he can get his hands on, but saves some pastries when Özge takes him to a chic patisserie for breakfast.
Angry with Achi for running out on her, Lia wanders back to Gülsen's house to make enquiries about Tekla. She is invited in for tea and one of the younger prostitutes wishes that her family showed such concern about her whereabouts. As some with a Georgian grandfather sings a sentimental song, Lia is struck by the camaraderie between the women and takes comfort that her niece would have had a support network to cope with her tough life.
Returning to the room to find Achi crashed on the bed, Lia orders him to leave. He protests that he had been trying to find a job and wasn't planning to desert her, but she is adamant. She's touched that he brought her a bun, however, and, when she sees him stroking a stray cat on the pavement outside her café, she invites him to rice and potatoes. As they are eating, they are overheard by Ramaz (Levan Gabrichidze), an ex-pat Georgian who is dining with his friend, Mustafa (Soner Yalçin). When he hurries off to keep a date, Ramaz introduces Lia to raki and she gets tipsy.
However, she's flirting for a reason, as she hopes that Ramaz will help her find Tekla. She whispers in his ear after dancing seductively around him and she is furious with Achi after she returns from applying red lipstick to discover that Ramaz has fled. No sooner has she slapped Achi, however, than she throws up and he offers an arm to steady her, as they wander back to the hotel with Lia recalling how the men used to flock round her when she was a girl. They pass Izzet and Gülpembe, who are dumpster diving. He is delighted to find a hair trimmer and makes his `sister' laugh by shaving his fringe. When they busk at a nearby bar, however, they are moved along without making a penny.
Nearby, Ömer spots Evrim while she's out with friends and comes over. He can't stay, as he has a geography exam the next morning at the university and Evrim is touched that he wants to be a teacher. She takes his card so she can call whenever she needs a cab. But she gets home to find Mustafa waiting on the stairs. He apologises for having stood her up and promises to buy her breakfast. However, he scarpers at first light and Evrim has to dress quickly because she has to bail out Izzet from the police station after he has been arrested for picking a tourist's pocket.
A couple of cops taunt Evrim about not being a qualified lawyer because she can't get the degree transferred to her new name until she has her documents signed. However, despite their eagerness to send Izzet to an orphanage, they hand him over to her and she takes him for a haircut to repair the trimmer damage to his fringe. Gülpembe shows Evrim a glamorous hairstyle she has seen in a magazine and she takes the children for lunch to warn them about staying clear of trouble while Izzet's mother is away.
Waking with a hangover, Lia declares that Istanbul is a place where people come to disappear. She refuses to give up, however, and hopes that Evrim can help find Tekla after they bump into Izzet and he explains what's going on. Evrim agrees to do what she can, although she is concerned that Tekla might not want to be found. They take a ferry to another red light district and visit a house Evrim knows well. The den mother suggests that Tekla had drug issues before she disappeared. But she hands over a bundle of her belongings and Lia cries over them, as she begins to wonder if she will ever find her.
Feeling sorry for Lia, Evrim takes them to dinner at a restaurant hosting a wedding. She coaxes Achi into dancing and he drags Lia on to the floor, where they are able to forget their cares and enjoy themselves. Ömer drives them home and Evrim is delighted when he invites her to breakfast. Up in the room, Achi announces that he plans to stay in Istanbul, even though his mother had disappeared here years before (unless she had died and no one could bring themselves to tell him) and Lia gives him a hug. She has forgiven him for lying over the address and recognises that he has much in common with the niece who had to leave a home that was crushing her spirit.
As she wanders towards the ferry terminus, Lia runs into Tekla (Tako Kurdovanidze). They hug and go back to the flat she shares above her boyfriend's hair salon. Lia smiles at the potted plants grown in her memory and cradles Tekla's head in her lap. But it's all wishful thinking, as she thinks back on what she told Achi about begging for Tekla's forgiveness for having put the opinion of her neighbours above the happiness of her niece. Deciding to stay on the ferry, as it turns around, Lia heads back to keep searching - on the off chance.
Demonstrating that life in the margins isn't all prejudice and degradation, Levan Akin's fine film captures the acceptance, resilience, and supportiveness of those who band together in unconventional communities after being
discarded by wider society. Although the emphasis is on trans sex workers, Akin also highlights the plight of the kids left to roam the streets of Istanbul, as they seem less visible than the thousands of stray cats whose perilous existence has been examined in documentaries like Ceyda Torun's Kedi (2016).
Ironically, Georgian and Turkish are gender-neutral languages, as each retains a highly patriarchal social outlook, which explains why trans youngsters can be murdered by fathers who can get away with claims that the gun went off accidentally while it was being cleaned. Evrim's experience with the toxic coppers and hospital staff is contrasted with her treatment by a lover who uses her for furtive sex while maintaining an esteemed position in the neighbourhood. Things may be different with her sweet cabbie, but Lia still has to find out Tekla's fate, while Achi will have to start from the bottom in order to survive in a city where his kind are ten a penny.
Lucas Kankava gives Achi a Liam Gallagher kind of swagger, but he's still a vulnerable innocent with much to learn, even though he's content to live on his wits. His rapport with Mzia Arabuli's Lia is splendidly delineated, as she sheds her preconceptions and comes to realise the difficulties facing the younger generation is has ceased to teach the lessons of the past. Lia also discovers things about herself during her sojourn, especially when Ramaz flees from her charm offensive. Deniz Dumanl's Evrim is still learning how to use her femininity, but her moxey gives her a head start when it comes to turning her humanist impulses into effective advocacy for her Pink Life clients and the waifs she comes across in a day's work.
Working with a deft selection of Georgian and Turkish songs, Akin and cinematographer Lisabi Fridell capture this environment with inquisitive, but never intrusive camerawork and through an unfussy, respectful, and non-sentimental approach to the denizens of an enclave whose character transforms after dark in order to give those who came there seeking sanctuary a chance to express themselves and live on their own terms.
SLEEP.
Having served as assistant director to Bong Joon-ho on Okja (2017), Jason Yu makes his directorial debut with Sleep, a mischievous chiller that sets out to test a South Korean couple's motto, `Together We Can Overcome Anything'.
Residing in a comfortable apartment, award-winning actor, Hyun-su (Lee Sun-kyun), and officer worker wife, Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi), are expecting their first child. One night, however, Hyun-su mumbles, `Someone is inside,' in his sleep, prompting Soo-jin to take a look around in the darkness. A loud knocking turns out to be a door banging in the wind and Soo-jin blames their cute dog, Pepper. But new downstairs neighbour, Min-jung (Kim Guk-Hee), complains that noises have been disturbing her for several days.
Remembering nothing of the incident, Hyun-su is glad that the grumpy old man who had previously lived beneath them has gone. But the hormonal Soo-jin is feeling vulnerable and becomes concerned when her husband keeps scratching his face while he sleeps. He refuses to see a doctor, even though she finds splotches of blood on the wooden floor and Pepper cowering under the bed.
Returning from work to find Hyun-su sat in the dark, Soo-jin is surprised by his suggestion that he should quit acting to become an estate agent. She reassures him that he is a fine actor, but is spooked enough to put over gloves on his hands when he goes to bed. She works late, only to be appalled when Hyun-su sleepwalks into the kitchen and starts scarfing down raw meat and fish. As Pepper barks furiously, Soo-jin follows her husband into the bedroom and has to pull him back from the open window when he threatens to throw himself out.
Wrestling him to the floor, Soo-jin is amazed when Hyun-sucomes round and has no idea what has been going on. He agrees to see a doctor (Yoon Kyung-ho), who claims he has a REM sleep disorder that can be cured by making the apartment as safe as possible, quitting alcohol, and getting early nights. Soo-jin's mother (Lee Kyung-Jin), however, thinks he's possessed and urges her daughter to consult a shaman and paste a protective symbol to the underside of the bed.
Despite giving Hyun-su a thumbs-up before he drops off, she wakes in the night to find food packaging on the kitchen floor and she screams on opening the fridge while searching for Pepper. But a new chapter starts, as Soo-jin gives birth to a daughter, Ha-yun, and she refuses to allow Hyun-su to move into a nearby inn to stop him from causing any more nocturnal harm. Indeed, she reinforces the security arrangements that now include confining Hyun-su to a constricting sleeping bag.
With her mother still insisting that divine intervention rather than medication is required, Soo-jin becomes suspicious when she sees Min-jung and her son, Jin-hyuk (Kim Jun), walking a dog named Andrew, who is the image of Pepper. She also takes umbrage when the neighbour suggests that she should leave Hyun-suif the marriage isn't working out. This makes Soo-jin even more determined to find a solution, even if it means sleeping in the bath with the baby and her spouse weeing up the wall in the night.
Furious at the doctor when he can't promise a quick cure and refuses to try stronger pills, Soo-jin throws something at his head. Embarrassed, Hyun-su goes to sleep in the car, but his wife is adamant that they will see this through together, come what may. New locks are put in to keep Hyun-su from wandering. But it's Soo-jin's mother who makes the decisive move, when she hires shaman Haegoong (Kim Keum-Soon) and she immediately determines that Hyun-su is being haunted by the ghost of an old man who letches after Soo-jin. However, she reveals she can only exorcise him if she knows his name and shoots Hyun-su a daggers stare, as he placidly cradles his daughter.
Having checked that all of her old boyfriends are still alive, Soo-jin wonders if the man from downstairs might be getting his revenge for the noise they used to make during love making. She discovers from Min-jung that Park Choon-Ki (Lee Dong-Chan) was her father and Soo-jin becomes so convinced that is stalking them that she asks her sleeping spouse if he is going to harm Ha-yun and a voice replies, `I don't know.'
Hearing crying coming from outside, Soo-jin finds her baby in a dumpster. But she has been dreaming after Hyun-su had woken in the night and put her to bed because she is exhausted after standing vigil. She is cross with him for removing the symbol from under the mattress, but dozes off. Rousing with a start, Soo-jin panics when she can't find Ha-yun and burns her hands in overturning a bubbling pot of soup in case the infant is being boiled alive. In fact, she had been having her nappy changed and Hyun-su is aghast at seeing his wife kneeling on a puddle of stock. Before he can react, however, she knocks him cold with the pan and he wakes to find his hand and feet bound, as Soo-jin straddles him with a knife, as she demands to know what Mr Park wants of her. Hyun-su calms her down by disclosing that the doctor had changed his prescription, so he hopes that things can start getting back to normal.
After a long rest cure, tests show his REM patterns have stabilised, while Soo-jin has spent a month in a psychiatric unit, while her mother babysit. When Hyun-su goes to collect her, however, he finds she discharged herself and he finds her at home. The main room is lit by candles and Soo-jin explains in front of a large screen that they have to get Mr Park's ghost out today or they are stuck with it. When he goes to leave, she hurls the `Together We Can Overcome Anything' sign into the hall mirror. Returning to the lounge, Hyun-su watches as she explains how Mr Park's death coincided with his REM episodes and shows him photographs of a failed exorcism. Then, she produces a bound-and-gagged Min-jung from the bathroom and threatens to bore a power drill into her skull unless the ghost leaves.
As midnight approaches, Mr Park bids farewell to his daughter and urges her to leave the building, as it's inhabited by lunatics. Hyun-su slumps forward and Soo-jin rushes to check he's no longer possessed. She rests her head on his chest and he looks away with a look of relief that's just sufficiently ambiguous to leave the lingering suspicion that all is still not well.
While it requires a certain suspension of disbelief, there's nothing particularly complicated about this Babadookian saga. It's not that frightening, either, despite the creeping, claustrophobicising camerawork. A bit more time might have been taken to show how well Hyun-su and Soo-jin rub along together, while Chapter Three is frustratingly rushed, as Soo-jin resorts to desperate measures to get her perfect life back. However, Lee Sun-kyun and Jung Yu-mi play off each other splendidly, as husband and wife take turns to exhibit eccentric behaviour.
Production designer Shin Yu-jin and cinematographer Kim Tae-soo artfully conspire to use lighting shifts to transform a cosy dwelling into a hell hole, in which everyday items like refrigerators and stew pots become implements of terror. Editor Han Meey-eon does a good job of timing the jolts, although Yu prefers to keep moments like Pepper's discovery and Hyun-su's exorcism off screen, as he lays the emphasis less on the horror aspect of the story than its human factor.
The first two chapters are leavened with disarming flashes of wit and their absence from the denouement expose the clumsy way in which Yu strives to strap a few shocks on to the action with the plot's loose ends. He doesn't quite succeed and also fumbles the bid to conclude on a cryptic note. Nevertheless, this is a mostly engaging and often amusing first outing, which intriguingly examines matrimonial dynamics and atones for missteps in scripting and direction with the off-kiltering atmosphere and some excellent acting.
THE NATURE OF LOVE.
A decade after Monia Chokri directed Magalie Lépine-Blondeau in the acclaimed short, An Extraordinary Person (2013), the French-Canadian pair reunite for The Nature of Love. Well known as an actress in her own right, Chokri has since directed herself in A Brother's Love (2019) and Babysitter (2022), and she also takes a supporting role in a third feature that confirms her as a dab hand at the Québecois romcom.
Sophia (Magalie Lépine Blondeau) is a 40 year-old philosophy lecturer who lives happily with her long-term partner, Xavier (Francis-William Rhéaume). At a dinner party with best friend Françoise (Monia Chokri), she is struck by the fact that she and partner Philippe (Steve Laplante) seem to have fantastic sex despite their constant bickering. Driving home, she raises this with Xavier, who believes that companionable celibacy is the best basis for a long-term relationship. As they get ready for bed, however, Sophia teases Xavier that he was attracted by Josephine (Lubna Playoust), a French guest who needs a lawyer to negotiate her divorce.
As Xavier had forgotten to tell Sophia about a conference, she has to go to the lakeside chalet they have just bought to meet with contractor, Sylvain Tanguay (Pierre-Yves Cardinal). He rattles off so many problems with the property that Sophia bursts into tears and he takes her to the beach to scream, so she can relieve the stress. Over a beer at the local bar, they discuss old flames and she accepts his invitation to pop outside for a smoke (even though she's given up). They get caught in a downpour and he kisses her when he drops her off at the chalet. She suggests he stays over and ignores a call from Xavier when Sylvain goes to his car for a condom.
Waking next morning with his business card on her forehead, Sophia makes light of missing Xavier's call when she chats to him while driving back to Montréal. Indeed, it's more awkward when she's interrupted while masturbating in the shower by in-laws Sylvie (Marie-Ginette Guay) and Pierre (Guy Thauvette) and is taken aback when Sylvie reveals that Pierre recently forgot her name and she fears that she won't be able to go on if he disappears because she relies on him. Sophia offers a hug, but says nothing, even when Sylvie claims she's like a daughter.
Despite calling to say they can never sleep together again, Sophia can't resist when Sylvain brings documents to the house in the middle of the day. Between lectures on Platonic Love, she keeps trysts at a high-rise hotel and spends montage time with a tongue-tied, but sincere working man with whom she has nothing in common but physical attraction. When he professes his love in the front seat of the car, she reciprocates and smiles when he says he's going to marry her. But she knows nothing about him and curses herself for confiding her affair to her mother, Madeleine (Micheline Lanctôt).
Telling Xavier cuts more deeply after Sophia flees dinner talk about grandchildren with Sylvie and confesses to the affair when her husband comes to check she's okay. He pleads with her not to abandon `us' and curses himself for being insufficiently libidinous, but she can't think of what to say and wakes in the night to find Xavier asleep on a mattress at the foot of their bed. Next morning, he drive off from the chalet with his parents and leaves Sophia stranded. She walks in the woods to gather her thoughts before calling Sylvain to say she wants to be his wife.
A montage of happy times in the snow is cut around Sophia telling Françoise how alive her body feels and her class about Schopenhauer's notions of physical love. She struggles a bit when she meets Sylvain's bibulous mother, Guylaine (Linda Sorgini), chauvinist older brother, Kevin (Mathieu Baron), and the downtrodden beautician wife of his two squabbling kids, Karine (Christine Beaulieu). But she is too besotted with her man to think he is similarly inclined, especially as he has been trying books on her reading list and keeps dropping quotes into conversations.
When they go to a bar, Karine tries some girl talk, but Sophia is concerned about the way Sylvain dances with his cousin by marriage, Vanessa (Johanna Toretto). She makes a point while vaping of telling Sophia that Sylvain has always been unlucky in love but might be okay this time as he's not dating a stunner. In bed, Sophia tells Sylvain she'd like to have his child, but he's too sleepy to take in what she's said.
When they next meet, he surprises her with a bookshelf for her apartment. But he gets jealous when he sees Xavier's jacket and bellows when she tells him he's being silly for worrying about him. Suddenly, a fierce row erupts, in which she ticks him off for his redneck language and admiration for a right-wing politician. Accusing her of patronising, Sylvain storms out and refuses to take calls, as Sophia explains to her mother (who doesn't seem surprised by or interested in developments).
Desperate enough to have sex with a man who is kind to her in the supermarket, Sophia lectures on Spinoza's views on human understanding of love and desire. This prompts her to call Xavier and they have a nice time philosophising while walking in the snow. But she hates having to be so passive during joyless sex and is so relieved when Sylvain calls that she wears a dog lead around her neck and submits to his lust because she knows that turns him on. Next day, he denies saying he only wants her for sex, but she feels uncomfortable in trying on the basque he buys to make her look like a porn star.
En route to her birthday party, Sophia bumps into Xavier and Josephine and feels jealous because the Frenchwoman is so classy and Sylvain certainly isn't. She's embarrassed at Françoise's place when he gets caught up in a conversation about Arabs, terrorism, and the death penalty with her brother, Olivier (Guillaume Laurin), and his new non-binary partner. Sophia is even more mortified when Sylvain produces tickets for a holiday in the Dominican Republic and drops to one knee to propose. As she's wearing dirty rubber gloves, she feels acutely self-conscious that the guests have produced their phones to film the moment. Buying time to think when Françoise rushes out to tend to a vomiting child, Sophia removes the gloves and puts the ring on her finger (without replying) and kisses Sylvain with her eyes open.
He stares dead ahead for the rest of the evening, with the shot through the fish tank emphasising how out of place he is. On the ride home, Sophia insists they'll get married because they love each other. Sylvain suggests they keep things quiet, as he stops for petrol at the same garage where she had first had doubts about Xavier. As he fills the tank, she looks at him in the side mirror and removes the ring. He leaves her alone on the forecourt and she looks up into the sleet slowly beginning to fall from the night sky.
Impeccably written and directed by Monia Chokri, this is a splendid showcase for Magalie Lépine-Blondeau, who brings physicality and finesse - as well as intuitive comic timing - to the part of a mid-life woman pondering the risk of settling for a cosy partnership with an intellectual equal when she could have unpredictable passion with a rugged stranger. Tossing a little class politics into the mix, along with the old chestnut of women being required to behave differently to men when it comes to desire, Chokri gives her consciously melodramatic storyline a satirical edge that is still frustratingly unusual in even the smartest romcoms.
Pierre-Yves Cardinal oozes the kind of potent magnetism the narrative needs, but he also conveys the emotional hesitancy of the hurt hunk who needs to be wanted for more than just his physique. Refusing to patronise, despite everyone knowing where the journey is going to end, Chokri makes deft use of philosophical theories to posit that if the great thinkers in history can't fathom love, then how are mere mortal supposed to fare?
With plenty of shrewdly scripted secondary characters complicating the judgemental Sophia's decision-making, this often feels like a pilot for a sitcom with a choice ensemble. The subplot about Xavier's mother mourning the loss of her life partner before he's even passed away is heartbreaking, however, and Chokri handles such tonal transitions with a clear-eyed confidence that extends to her shot selection (the fish out of water gag is superb) and the amusingly parodic montages. Responding to the challenge posed by Chokri's penchant for quirkily off-kilter framings and mirrorings, cinematographer André Turpin devises some intriguing ways of depicting Sophia's shifting emotions. Production designer Colombe Raby, costumier Guillaume Laflamme, editor Pauline Gaillard, and composer Emile Sornin all make solid craft contributions of their own. But this is all about a writer-director and their lead being in complete screwball accord and one can only hope that Chokri and Lépine-Blondeau get together again soon.
AGENT OF HAPPINESS.
Since the 1990s, Bhutan has maintained the Gross National Happiness index to uphold the kingdom's reputation for contentment and use the results of the regular surveys in order to give the people a semblance of a say in state policy. As documentarists Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó discover in Agent of Happiness, however, there's no such thing as a common sense of well-being in a country whose rural and urban populations continue to prioritise different things and cherish markedly contrasting dreams.
Following a pep talk about the purpose of the GNH data, Amber Kumar Gurung and Guna Raj Kuikel drive into the country to the strains of `Aye Mere Humsafar' from Mansoor Khan's Bollywood classic, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988). They are two of the 75 agents hired to ask 148 questions in nine categories. Their first interview is with Thinley, an 84 year-old hard-of-hearing farmer, who has lost his wife and contradicts himself when asked about whether he prefers Bhutan in the past or now. A younger woman is happy because her cow has just calved, while a flute-playing student is glad to be back in his village after the bustle of the town.
Each person has their score flashed up, complete with ratings for such factors as the number of cows and donkeys they own, their tendency to anger, and their willingness to trust their neighbours.
Travelling into the town through glorious countryside, Amber laments that he won't be happy until he finds a wife. But he's in his forties and lives with his dependant elderly mother in Thimphu. A song plays in the car about happiness in the land of the Thunder Dragon, as they venture into the town to meet Dechen Selden.
She is a transgender dancer at a bar and, therefore, none of the questions about livestock ownership apply. But she admits to feeling jealous, scared, and depressed, as her answers reveal how detached she feels from the tenets of Bhutanese contentment. Dechen lives with her mother, who wholly accepts her, but is dying of cancer and worries about how her daughter will cope when she's gone and has to shoulder the burden of providing for the family. Smiling sadly, Dechen hopes she is reincarnated as a beautiful woman.
Amber meets with Sarita, a woman from a dating app and they discuss their family backgrounds. They are getting along well, but Amber springs the fact he's not getting any younger and is hoping to marry. But his date wants to travel to Australia before she settles down and he can't keep the disappointment from his expression. Back home, he's scarcely cheered by his mother reminding him that all of his siblings are married and that he will be lonely until he finds a companion.
On the road again, Amber and Guna take selfies at the end of interviews, with most people claiming to be happy enough, even though feelings are complicated things. One woman is seeking citizenship and will feel better once she belongs, while another teases Amber that she feels good because she's with a handsome man. Finding a large boulder in the middle of a winding road, the pair try to move it, but it won't budge.
Amber thinks part of his problem is the fact that the government withdrew citizenship from so many Lhotshampa Nepalis like himself and women don't want to commit to someone who could be deported. He envies a young couple with a remote cottage and two children and dreams about playing with his own kids in the garden. By contrast, he meets a man with three wives, who thinks they are grateful to him for taking them in from poverty. He's a blowhard, who never listens and insists on his own comfort (hence scoring perfect 10s in the captioned sample). But the women don't love him and have bonded together for mutual support and to mock his bulging belly behind his back.
The agents are more touched by an old man who misses his wife and has erected 108 prayer flags to protect her soul from the King of the Dead. He regrets that she didn't live to see their children prosper, but he knows she can hear the flags flapping in the hill wind and will know he has not forgotten her. He measures his happiness, however, in the grains of rice in his storeroom. Touched by his devotion, Amber visits a monk who predicts he will be married within two years. So, he writes to the King of Bhutan to request the restoration of his citizenship.
Staying in the countryside, Amber and Guna pay a call on 17 year-old Yangkha. She lives with her 34 year-old mother and younger sibling. When her husband deserted her, the mother began to drink heavily and feels guilty that her daughter has to run the household. They smile when asked about electrical appliances, but admit to having a TV and mobile phones. Indeed, Yangkha is always on Tik Tok and wishes she was as striking as the pretty white women she sees there. She has a low happiness quotient, but she remembers a day when her mother kept off the booze and Yangkha pretended to be a police officer and her sister a doctor so they could help cure her.
Sarita joins Amber for a day in the valley and he takes pictures of her paddling in the river. He offers a hand to stop her from slipping and their rapport is much easier than before. On another day out, however, he tells her that he can't get a passport to join her in Australia and explains that he has been applying for the return of his native rights since he was two years old. Sitting on his motorbike, he serenades her with a filmi love song and it's clear that they are getting closer. However, he can't profess his love until he feels worthy of her and, for that, he needs to be an equal citizen.
Meanwhile, Dechen takes her mother to a bathhouse. They discuss reincarnation and the mother says she simply wants to come back as a good person. She also reminds her daughter to ignore what other people think, as she has beauty and kindness and that should be enough. Yet, Dechen has the lowest happiness score we've seen so far, as she has no tractors and frequent bouts of depression and fear. The widower with the prayer flags doubles her tally, as his daughter has just presented him with a grandson after being married 15 years. A lama had told him that his wife would be reincarnated as a carpenter in their village, so he is happy that she has returned to her own family.
Amber drives Sarita to the airport and she promises to call when she lands in Melbourne. A montage follows of some of the other people he encountered during the survey, with most agreeing that life is too short for sadness. Despite only registering a five for his own score, Amber goes to a hill top. He still has hope and he can still dream. But he can also dance and he moves tai-chi-like to a filmi playing on his phone, as a closing caption informs us that 93.6% of Bhutanese consider themselves happy, which is a rise of two points on the last poll.
Despite the transition to democracy in 2008, Bhutan retained its king and such is the affection for Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck that one suspects many of those surveyed during the Gross National Happiness project withheld any discontent in a show of loyalty. It's neatly ironic, therefore, that the pollster chosen by Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó is not only less than chuffed with his lot, but he has also been disqualified from his citizenship because of the inter-ethnic tensions that have been moiling since the 1980s.
The Bhutanese-Hungarian duo have already examined the changing face of the landlocked Himalayan kingdom in The Next Guardian (2017), in which a teenager is placed in charge of a monastery. But they rigorously steer clear of politics in this leisurely rumination on how everyone is happy in their own way. Some are clearly more content than others, but the reasons for this sense of well-being are so diverse that the 148 items on the questionnaire can scarcely do them justice.
Wisely, Bhattarai and Zurbó avoid focussing on such divisive issues, although the contrasts they alight upon between urban and rural dwellers pack their own punch. Age and gender also impact upon responses, with so many people seeming to be lonely and either seeking or mourning a soulmate. Mothers and offspring also play a prominent part, while the sisterly bond between the women stuck with the preening polyamorous chauvinist also leaves its mark.
For the most part, Bhattarai keeps the camera at a respectful distance, although the close-ups of Amber deftly convey the anguish he feels as a dutiful son, a single man, and a lifelong oppressee. The views of the terrain, however, are magnificent, as are the shots of the differing abodes. Editors Péter Sass and Károly Szalai reflect the meandering pace of these sojourns, which are complemented by Ádám Balázs's melodic score. Poetic in places, poignant in some, and potent in others, this leaves a lot of loose ends flapping like untied prayer flags. So, it would be nice if the film-makers could maybe revisit Amber some time to see if he and Sarita got their happy ending.
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