The cinema of Bhutan is a small [1] but emerging industry, [2] having started in the mid-1990s. [1] It has since been supported by government officials and different businesses. [3]
Bhutan's film industry is highly influenced by neighboring Indian film industry, with most Bhutanese films being adaptations of Indian ones or based on the Indian film format. [1] In the 21st century [4] there have been calls by local filmmakers for a tilt towards originality in Bhutanese cinema. Many films have started to blend Indian cinema with local Buddhist teachings and traditions, and Bollywood films are now rarely seen in Bhutanese cinema halls after more than a decade of domination. [1] [2] Storytelling based on Buddhist oral history and supernatural beliefs are increasingly influencing Bhutanese cinematic structure. [5]
As of 2011 [update] , Bhutan's film industry produced an average of thirty films a year. [3] By 2012, Thimphu had six cinema halls. [6]
Some voices are confident that Bhutan's film industry is expected to grow and innovate in the future. [7]
In 1989, Ugyen India directed Gasa Lamai Singye, the first, pioneer Bhutanese feature film. [8] Gasa Lamai Singye, a tragic love story reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet , had a remake in 2016, directed by Sonam Lhendup Tshering. [9] Wangdi went on to direct several documentary films [10] His Yonten Gi Kawa (Price of Knowledge, 1998) was the first documentary made in Bhutan, and followed the daily life of a 11-year-old boy at home and school. It was followed by Yi Khel Gi Kawa (Price of A Letter, 2004), where Wangdi tells the story of a postal runner who worked throughout Bhutan for 26 years. [8]
In 1999, Tshering Wangyel released the first commercially successful movie in Dzongkha language, Rewaa (Hope), a love story where two college boys fall for the same girl. As one critic put it, "the commercial Bhutanese film industry was born." [4] Wangyel went on to produce some 50 movies and died of pneumonia while making his last film. [11] [12] In 2007, he had produced Bakchha , the first Bhutanese horror movie.
Buddhist lama Khyentse Norbu wrote and directed four award-winning films, The Cup (1999), Travellers & Magicians (2003), Vara: A Blessing (2013), and Hema Hema: Sing Me A Song While I Wait (2016). [4] Travellers & Magicians was the first feature film to be entirely shot within Bhutan. Hema Hema, which tells its story by following a mysterious ritual in the forest where all participants are masked, was praised by critics for "its portrayal of complex Buddhist themes like transgression, by juxtaposing them on to modern topics like anonymity on the Internet." [4] Another Buddhist lama, Neten Chokling, appeared in Travellers & Magicians, and in 2006 directed his own feature film, Milarepa .
The Holder, a short film, coordinated by Jamyang Dorji, debuted at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and was screened in Brussels together with Original Photocopy of Happiness by Dechen Roder, [13] a young director from Bumthang who went on to direct in 2016 the mystery film Honeygiver Among the Dogs . The movie was described as "a genre-bending work, blending elements of neo-noir with Bhutanese mysticism." [4]
in 2014, Karma Dhendup directed Ap Bokto , a 3-d computer-animated fim based on a Bhutanese folk tale. In 2016, Drukten: The Dragon's Treasure was the first Bhutanese 2-d animation movie. [8]
For contemporary content, in 2017, R.C. Chand's film Thimphu was hailed as "doing away with the notion that all independent Bhutanese movies draw upon the country's Buddhist mysticism." It presents the life of Bhutan's capital through different characters, including an alcoholic family, a transgender woman, and a young singer with problems of career and love. [4]
Female directors are rare in Bhutan. One is Kesang Chuki, who produced ten documentaries, docudramas, and short movies, including Nangi Aums to Go-thrips (Housewives to Leaders, 2011), about the problems of Bhutanese women who assume public roles, and A Young Democracy (2008), where Chuki accompanies two candidates in their campaigns for the first ever democratic election in Bhutan. [10]
The Next Guardian was the first feature-length documentary film by Bhutanese director Arun Bhattarai and Hungarian director Dorrotya Zurbo. It premiered at IDFA, 2017 and was featured in MoMA among several other film festivals.
The Bhutan Beskop film celebration (2010, 2011) was a significant event for the local film industry. Financial specialists and sometimes banks fund new productions that are screened in one of Bhutan's several cinemas, of which the Lugar Lobby in Thimphu with 880 seats is the biggest. [14]
A sum of 152 Bhutanese movies were created in the main decade of the 21st century. Bhutan has two distribution houses. Business movies are periodically in light of an "affection" subject, here and there joined with a social issue (HIV, urbanization) taking after a customary script with exchanges, tunes, dances, complicated relations and a battle. Spending plans change from $15,000 to $50,000. Compensations for performers and vocalists have gone up from $1,000 (2006) to $10,000 per film for top on-screen characters in 2011. Real uses for film preparations are coordinations, gear and compensations. The gross income for a well known film (up to 90,000 onlookers) may reach up to $140,000, while less well known movies may raise half of it and unpopular movies hazard shortages. [15]
The Bhutanese market is small. Leading Bhutanese director Tshering Wangyel recalled in 2015 that in the 20th century, "distribution was an ordeal, requiring filmmakers to carry generators, fuel, and screening equipment from village to village." Much has improved in the 21st century but, according to Wangyel "distribution continues to be a slog, handicapping the industry's growth." Despite these problems, Wangyel said, "the industry is thriving, with audiences in one of the most remote countries on earth flocking to homegrown movies." [16]
Bhutan's film industry has a limited number of studios, with incomplete equipment. [17] Most directors contribute money to their own productions, [16] although in the 21st century international funding has been occasionally available. [8]
A few Bhutanese movies have won international acclaim. [8] Others are seen as repetitious, returning time and again on Buddhist legends and the "clash between tradition and modernity, with conservatism getting the last word as characters hold forth on the importance of prayer and background chants urge viewers to be good Buddhists." [16]
Although regular movie theaters now exist in all the largest cities, it is still necessary today[ when? ] to "lug a makeshift cinema from village to village to reach Bhutan's movie-loving population," renting school auditoriums or setting up a tent in each venue. According to director Wangyel, "it takes a year to cover the country for screenings." [16]
Piracy has been a worldwide issue and influences the Bhutan film industry. DVDs are effortlessly duplicated in Nepal/India and retailed through shops in the urban areas. Anti-theft measures are regarded as largely insufficient. [18] "The long wait for screenings" has been blamed for the flourishing of a piracy industry servicing "impatient audiences eager to watch illegal copies of Dzongkha-language films." [16]
The government of Bhutan regards cinema as important, and has committed itself to promote the local production with adequate studios and support, and more effective policies against copyright infringement. [19]
Critical voices like director Tashy Gyeltshen are afraid that "the relentless push to promote tradition while imitating Bollywood formula risk creating a 'cultural desert' for future generations," with the most acclaimed directors just "wallowing in past glory." [16] There are also, however, more optimistic voices, persuaded that change is coming with a new generation of Bhutanese directors who "shun the influence of Bollywood and look inward," a process that has been rewarded with prizes in international festivals. [4]
Thimphu is the capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan, and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan's dzongkhags, the Thimphu District. The ancient capital city of Punakha was replaced by Thimphu as capital in 1955, and in 1961 Thimphu was declared as the capital of the Kingdom of Bhutan by the 3rd Druk Gyalpo Jigme Dorji Wangchuck.
Dzongkha is a Tibeto-Burman language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script.
Jigme Singye Wangchuck is a member of the House of Wangchuck who was the king of Bhutan from 1972 until his abdication in 2006.
Wangdue Phodrang District is a Thromde and dzongkhag (district) of central Bhutan. This is also the name of the dzong which dominates the district. The name is said to have been given by the Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal who was searching for the best location for a dzong to prevent incursions from the south. The word "wangdue" means unification of Country, and "Phodrang" means Palace in Dzongkha.
The music of Bhutan is an integral part of its culture and plays a leading role in transmitting social values. Traditional Bhutanese music includes a spectrum of subgenres, ranging from folk to religious song and music. Some genres of traditional Bhutanese music intertwine vocals, instrumentation, and theatre and dance, while others are mainly vocal or instrumental. The much older traditional genres are distinguished from modern popular music such as rigsar.
Ngawang Namgyal (1594–1651), known colloquially as The Bearded Lama, was a Tibetan Buddhist Drukpa Kagyu school Rinpoche, and the unifier of Bhutan as a nation-state. He was later granted the honorific title Zhabdrung Rinpoche, approximately "at whose feet one submits". In addition to unifying the various warring fiefdoms for the first time in the 1630s, he also sought to create a distinct Bhutanese cultural identity separate from the Tibetan culture from which it was derived.
Travellers and Magicians is a 2003 Bhutanese Dzongkha-language film written and directed by Khyentse Norbu, writer and director of the arthouse film The Cup. The movie is the first feature film shot entirely in the Kingdom of Bhutan. The majority of the cast are not professional actors; Tshewang Dendup, a well-known Bhutanese radio actor and producer, is the exception.
Gross National Happiness, sometimes called Gross Domestic Happiness (GDH), is a philosophy that guides the government of Bhutan. It includes an index which is used to measure the collective happiness and well-being of a population. Gross National Happiness Index is instituted as the goal of the government of Bhutan in the Constitution of Bhutan, enacted on 18 July 2008.
Drukair Corporation Limited, operating as Drukair — Royal Bhutan Airlines, is the flag carrier of the Kingdom of Bhutan, headquartered in the western dzongkhag of Paro.
Articles related to Bhutan include:
The various mass media in Bhutan have historically been government-controlled, although this has changed in recent years. The country has its own newspapers, television and radio broadcasters and Internet Service Providers.
Kalden "Kelly" Sonam Dorji is a Bhutanese actor, model, and artist who works primarily in Indian movies.
Tsokye Tsomo Karchung is a Bhutanese actress and beauty pageant title holder who won Miss Bhutan 2008 and competed in Miss Earth 2008. She is also the first Bhutanese woman to be crowned as Miss Bhutan.
The Tobacco Control Act of Bhutan was enacted by the Parliament of Bhutan on 6 June 2010 and came into force on 16 June. It regulates tobacco and tobacco products, banning the cultivation, harvesting, production, and sale of tobacco and tobacco products in Bhutan. The act also mandates that the government of Bhutan provide counselling and treatment to facilitate tobacco cessation. Premised on the physical health and well being of the Bhutanese people – important elements of Gross National Happiness – the Tobacco Control Act recognizes the harmful effects of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke on both spiritual and social health.
Laya is a Tibetic variety spoken by indigenous Layaps inhabiting the high mountains of northwest Bhutan in the village of Laya, Gasa District. Speakers also inhabit the northern regions of Thimphu and Punakha Districts. Its speakers are ethnically related to the Tibetans. Most speakers live at an altitude of 3,850 metres (12,630 ft), just below the Tsendagang peak. Laya speakers are also called Bjop by the Bhutanese, sometimes considered a condescending term. There were 1,100 speakers of Laya in 2003.
This film Singye Galeem produced by Wisdom Picture was approved on 29 December 2007 for public exhibition in Bhutan.
The Dochu La( Dochu Pass, la means pass in Dzongkha) is a mountain pass in the snow covered Himalayas within Bhutan on the road from Thimphu to Punakha where 108 memorial chortens or stupas known as "Druk Wangyal Chortens" have been built by Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuk, the eldest Queen Mother. Apart from the chortens there is a monastery called the Druk Wangyal Lhakhang (temple), built in honour of the fourth Druk Gyalpo, Jigme Singye Wangchuck; the open grounds in its front yard is a venue for the annual Dochula Druk Wangyel Festival. The pass with 108 memorial chortens is adjacent to the country's first Royal Botanical Park.
Tshering Wangyel was a Bhutanese film director. He directed more than 50 films and died of pneumonia while making his last film.