The Next Guardian

Description

In the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, teenage siblings Gyembo and Tashi share a passion for soccer, Facebook, and girls. Gyembo enjoys reading classmates’ Facebook posts while Tashi turns heads with her confident, boyish demeanor. As technology and social media become more accessible, these youthful amusements collide with the father’s desire for Gyembo to inherit the family monastery. Co-directors Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó present a penetrating and compassionate portrait of globalization and fundamental change in a country immersed in tradition and culture.

The filmmakers originally set out to document Tashi’s quest with a friend to make Bhutan’s national under-14 girls’ soccer team. The week of training and trying out, of playful interludes and abrupt setbacks, comprises a vibrant chunk of The Next Guardian. Back home, Tashi’s emergent identity as a boy in a girl’s body, against a backdrop of traditional costumed dances and mountain landscapes, contemporizes the coming-of-age saga — and the family’s widening generation gap — with a 21st-century zing. But it’s her likable but aimless older brother Gyembo who’s feeling the pressure (like countless sons in countless cultures before him) to go into the family business. “The monastery is our soul,” says his father. “It is everything.” How does an adolescent argue with that? Warmly naturalistic and gently open-ended, The Next Guardian has the grace and spontaneity of being witness to a succession of unvarnished moments.

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