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SFFILM Festival

The Next Guardian

Directed by Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó

Hungary/Netherlands | 74

8 Apr
Sun, Apr 8, 2018 at 2:00 pm PT

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.

Director Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó

Arun Bhattarai directed youth documentaries and TV programs for the Bhutan Broadcasting Service for five years before earning a DOC NOMADS Erasmus Joint Master Degree in Filmmaking. Dorottya Zurbó of Hungary, whose award-winning shorts played numerous festivals, graduated from the same program. The Next Guardian, their feature debut, premiered at IDFA. “A documentary film can be a mirror to our society without being judgmental and saying what is right or what is wrong,” says Bhattarai. “I want to travel with my film to remote communities in Bhutan and involve them in talking about the themes and have open discussions [with] audiences made up of [different] generations.”

Trailer

//player.vimeo.com/video/258416502

Film Details

Language Dzongkha

Year 2017

Runtime 74

Country Hungary/Netherlands

Director Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó

Producer Julianna Ugrin

Editor Károly Szalai

Cinematographer Arun Bhattarai

Music Ádám Balázs