Movie Review: A village in Bhutan learns about democracy and teaches us, too, in ‘Monk and the Gun’
“Why are you instructing us to be so impolite?” the aged village girl asks a Bhutanese election official in “The Monk and the Gun.”
It’s a query each poignant and biting, as a result of the “instructing” this girl is resisting is one thing a lot of the skin world considers a primary human proper: the best to vote.
For a piercing refresher lesson on democracy, one wouldn’t essentially consider rural Bhutan as the primary place to look. For one factor, democratic elections solely got here to the tiny, long-isolated Himalayan kingdom in April 2007, when the nation held its first mock vote, resulting in the true factor late that 12 months after which the primary structure in 2008.
Author-director Pawo Choyning Dorji, whose debut function, “Lunana: A Yak within the Classroom,” went all the way in which to an Oscar nomination, facilities his pleasant, shifting and intelligent new satire on a second in 2006 when officers first fan out into the countryside to introduce this idea referred to as “election.” TV and web entry are lower than a decade outdated.
It doesn’t go easily. “Is {that a} new pig illness?” asks one villager. Others arrive to register, solely to find they should know their birthdate. Some don’t. They’re advised they should go away and go discover out. However actually, many don’t see the purpose. They’ve a king. They like him. Why go to all this bother?
However “The Monk and the Gun,” as you could have surmised, is not only about democracy. It’s additionally about weapons, and their function in society, a very fertile theme for Dorji’s model of wry satire and pointed comparisons.
We start with a younger monk, Tashi, attendant to a lama, or non secular chief, traversing a peaceable area to a mountain village, Ura. He’s on his strategy to hear an uncommon request: The lama wants a gun. Or two. Earlier than the complete moon is available in a couple of days. “Issues have to be made proper,” he says, cryptically.
What may the lama imply? Weapons are usually not a traditional a part of this society. If there is a gun mendacity round, it’s a giant deal. Which leads us to Ron Coleman, an American (Harry Einhorn), and his go to to Bhutan.
“Inform folks you’re right here to see Buddhist temples,” Ron’s host and fixer Benji (Tandin Sonam) tells him when he arrives. However Ron is there to acquire, for a collector, a prized Nineteenth-century American gun that one way or the other resides with a Bhutanese farmer.
Dorji toggles between these two storylines: politics and weapons, with the clock ticking to each the complete moon and the mock election. It is a tumultuous time, with information stories suggesting the transition to democracy is unpopular. As one man says, “What is the use? We have already got His Majesty.” One other wonders why they’d need to be like nations the place politicians throw chairs at one another. The chief organizer has to remind folks — together with a mom whose daughter is being bullied at college — that in some nations, folks die combating for the best to vote.
Again to gun vendor Ron (his identify is just a little nod to cinema buffs who might recall the actor Ron Colman within the 1937 “Misplaced Horizon”), who’s so keen to amass the historic weapon, he presents the proprietor $75,000. That’s not acceptable to the farmer — it is an excessive amount of! So a deal is struck for a lot much less. However whereas Ron is off amassing the money, the monk exhibits up, in search of a gun for his lama.
Who’ll get the gun? The remainder of the plot is finest left unspoiled, however you might be positive Dorji finds a strategy to tie his threads collectively in a approach each comedian and biting, each entertaining and provocative.
An ideal instance is that scene the place election organizers are attempting to coach the plenty. With villagers gathered, they clarify that completely different colours stand for various events. However once they attempt to generate some compulsory back-and-forth — perhaps just a bit yelling — the hassle falls flat. “Present some ardour! You are speculated to despise one another!” complains one official.
Additionally humorous however queasy-making, too, is the way in which Ron is described by his Bhutanese cohort in an effort to achieve respect for his information of weapons: “Mr. Ron is an professional. In his nation there are extra weapons than folks! “
The casting of the movie is fascinating in itself. Many of the forged (together with Einhorn, an educational) are making appearing debuts right here. One, Tandin Wangchuk as Tashi, is a Bhutanese alt-rock star. The villagers in Ura are largely precise villagers of Ura. The lama is certainly the precise (and solely) village lama, Kelsang Choejay.
And it’s he who retains us all questioning: What the heck does he need with these weapons? Dorji holds the suspense and finds a strategy to shock us in a deeply satisfying approach.
The director has mentioned he merely hopes his residence nation — inhabitants about 790,000, recognized for its magnificence and its official crucial of Gross Nationwide Happiness— has one thing to show the remainder of the world. “It’s not who we’re,” that aged girl says in regards to the rudeness. It’s clear Dorji is hoping we’ll be her, then ourselves, and questioning simply who we’re and need to be.
“The Monk and the Gun,” a Roadside Sights launch, has been rated PG-13 by the Movement Image Affiliation “for some nude sculptures and smoking.” Working time: 112 minutes. Three and a half stars out of 4.
