09 Dec IEFTA Alumni Arun Bhattarai selected for World Cinema Documentary Competition for Sundance Festival
IEFTA Alumni Arun Bhattarai (Bhutan) and his project Agent of Happiness has been selected for the World Cinema Documentary Competition for Sundance Festival 2024. Plus this is the first Bhutanese film to have its world premiere at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival!
IEFTA selected Arun Bhattarai for the IEFTA Global Film Expression mentorship award at Dhaka Doclab in 2019 and went on to feature as one of 6 emerging filmmakers selected in the Cannes Marche du Film Online 2020 for his film Agent of Happiness (Original title: Gyalyong Gaki Pelzom, also previously titled Gross National Happiness). The film also gained recognition at the Tribeca Film Institute and his short Mountain Man is part of the 19 exceptionally strong films that were selected for the IDFA Competition for Short Documentary.
Arun Bhattarai (Bhutan)
DIRECTOR
Arun Bhattarai is a documentary filmmaker from Bhutan. His first feature length documentary, The Next Guardian, premiered at IDFA 2017 in the First Appearance Competition and has since screened in over 40 international film festivals.
Following the success of The Next Guardian, Arun directed the television documentary Kelden (2018), that won The Asia Pitch Award 2016 and screened on NHK World TV and KBS Korea.
Before becoming an independent filmmaker, Arun worked as a TV director at the Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS) for more than 5 years. He graduated from the 1st Edition of Docnomads Joint Masters in Documentary Directing, for which he was awarded a full Erasmus Mundus scholarship in Lisbon, Budapest and Brussels.
Synopsis: Amber is one of the many agents working for the Bhutanese government to measure people’s happiness levels among the remote Himalayan mountains. But will he find his own along the way?
Agent of Happiness, directed by Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó, offers a unique take on the notoriously exoticized Bhutan and its unusual happiness policy. We follow Amber as he investigates various expressions of contentment across different households and lifestyles while navigating his own struggle as a Nepali minority. The holistic philosophy at the heart of the survey he conducts challenges the conventional metrics of fulfillment and success, often provoking some deeper soul-searching. The filmmakers elegantly capture many tender moments between Amber and his interlocutors, as well as some very revealing conversations filled with unflinching honesty and quiet wisdom.
Through its carefully crafted narrative, the film resonates as a heartfelt exploration of happiness in the face of adversity. As Amber grapples with societal disparities and personal roadblocks while searching for love, this story becomes a beautifully realized reminder to count our blessings.