Review of the film Agent of Happiness For the first time in Bhutan’s cinematic history a film is not afraid to look back at us, at our own gaze, albeit in a gentle embrace of empathy and compassion. A rejoinder, perhaps, that art completes our imagination. Through little moments of joy and sorrow, at times funny and other times satirical, but through sincere reflection and most importantly through the lens of hope, the characters reveal themselves frame-by-frame in intimate confessions and in their genuine aspirations.
However, the film also reminds us that there is always a time for a song, for a dance, if not in celebration, at least in a self-deprecating humor of Amber Kumar Gurung, the 41-year-old agent of happiness whose job is to collect data for the happiness survey. Amber, who holds the film together, crisscrosses the painterly landscape and introduces us to the other characters. The documentary, Agent of Happiness, by Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbo, which held its world premiere at the distinguished Sundance Film Festival in January 2024, one of the biggest film festivals in the world, is a deep and profound sigh of joy in the world of relentless pursuit of happiness.
Why joy? Not because the film talks about happiness in a grandiose and academic way and how it will change the world. But, because, a teenage schoolgirl Yangka Lhamo dreams of becoming a police officer and look after her alcoholic mother, because a courageous transgender performer opens up to her supportive mother and wishes to be reborn as a beautiful woman, because how the three wives of a patriarch have learnt to live in harmony, in sisterhood and in karmic acceptance, because a 70-year-old farmer Ap Tshering, after his wife’s death, finds solace in a newborn grandson (a second child born after 15 years gap) who he believes is his wife’s reincarnation, and because the agent of happiness himself, a hopeless romantic, is desperately looking for a wife while asking endless questions to the main characters and strangers around the country in a quest to measure how happy the people are. At its core, Agent of Happiness, their second film after The Next Guardian (2017), is about hope.
It’s a film praying to connect us with each other, in dignity and from within. Hope is a motivating force that helps people persevere in the face of challenges, offering possibilities and optimism when the present looks bleak. To be happy is a noble aspiration.
No questions about it. But crests and troughs are part of the wave—a part of life. The strength of the film is that it’s not about happiness.
But that it’s about us. It’s about you and me, we the Bhutanese people, in our most vulnerable moments, opening our fragile hearts and being generous with time, scraping by and grinding on, yet looking forward with hope that those small cracks in life would open up to allow a ray of sunshine through. If happiness slips in, we will embrace it in gratitude like how Ap Tshering, holding his grandson with a big smile, recognizes the circle of life.
If not, we will sing a song or join a circle of dance. Like how the film ends, Amber dancing alone by the roadside as the towering mountains look on. Obviously, in hope.
In essence, Agent of Happiness is about the aesthetics of happiness because the film gives us joy, for it’s a breath of fresh air to see ourselves, as we are, on the big screen. Maybe, just maybe, a film is what we need to humanize and understand ourselves better. Contributed by Tashi Gyeltshen Film Director/ Screenwriter Agent of Happiness Hungarian -Bhutanese coproduction, 2024 Directors: Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbo Producers: Noémi Veronika Szakonyi, Máté Artur Vincze, Arun Bhattarai Duration: 90 minutes World Premiere: Sundance Film Festival 2024, USA, World Cinema Documentary Competition.
Awards Best International Film award, Biografilm Festival, Italy. Audience award, San Francisco International Film Festival. Audience award, Margaret Mead Film festival, New York, USA.
Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking Award, International South Asian Film Festival, Canada. Special Mention, Docs Against Gravity, Poland. Best Film, Main Competition at MakeDox, North Macedonia.
