Jigme Drukpa

Sangai, a teenage girl living with her father in a village of inland Bhutan, is not happy with her father, who makes wooden phalluses, believed to have mysterious power, and playing a festival clown with a red mask at a local festival. She reluctantly delivers the phalluses to neighbors but she is followed by dozens of men with red masks and costumes when walking through the hill. Conflict and tension grows between the father, who has concerns about his successor, and Sangai, who has a clandestine relationship with a married man.

The dazzling new film from Bhutanese lama and filmmaker Khyentse Norbu (The Cup, Travellers and Magicians) chronicles a sacred jungle ritual whose masked, anonymous participants seek after complete self-knowledge — or descend into thievery, violation, and murder.

The Frisian singer Linde Nijland was always fond of the combination of traveling and singing. An invitation to listen to a concert in honor of the coronation of the fifth king of Bhutan was the ideal occasion in 2008 to make a months-long journey through South East together with multi-instrumentalist Bert Ridderbos.

Imagine a country where happiness is the guiding principle of government. Imagine a people who see all life as sacred and the source of their happiness, a place with an abundance of clean and renewable energy, a nation committed to preserving its culture and whose progress is measured by obtaining Gross National Happiness for its people. Where is this Shangri-La? Bhutan. But can a place like Bhutan really exist? Can such ideals be realized? Can this small, geographically isolated country tucked away in the Himalayans truly protect its environment and culture as they open their doors to the West? The answer is rooted in the Bhutanese view of the world, anchored in Buddhism, with the simple message that happiness can only be found by taking the middle path the path that balances the needs of man with the powerful spirits of nature.

La historia transcurre en Bután, el pequeño reino de la cordillera del Himalaya, en donde un hombre, Dondup, no se ubica en su cultura y cree que su destino es el 'sueño americano'. Dondup se siente en el lugar equivocado. Las costumbres de su aldea y los deportes que practican sus amigos ya le parecen ridículos y se siente injertado y desdichado por estar ahí, perdido en alguna montaña de Bután, cuando él es occidental. Tan occidental como Madonna o los Backstreet Boys, la música que tanto le gusta. Sólo sueña con irse a vivir a Estados Unidos. Con ese objetivo en mente, ahorra en extremo hasta que al fin llega el día de su oportunidad de oro para comenzar su viaje hacia su sueño americano. Solo que por el camino se le unen otros viajeros con menos pretensiones que él: un monje budista, un vendedor de manzanas y un fabricante de papel de arroz y su hermosa hija.