Country: Bhutan, France, Italy, Norway
Year: 2024
Duration: 113'
Nima, a teacher in the capital of Bhutan, is accused of appearing in a non-consensual pornographic video. To prove her innocence, she travels to southern Bhutan in search of her lookalike in the video. Once there, she learns that her doppelgänger, Meto, has supposedly left the country. Unconvinced, Nima digs deeper, meeting Meto’s friends and lovers. A visit to Meto’s village only adds confusion: Meto's brother insists she is still in Bhutan, while her grandmother waits for Meto’s return after recovering a sacred song “stolen” by city people. As Nima unravels the fragments of Meto’s life, she becomes entangled in uncertainty. Gradually, her anger turns into concern, and she realizes she is the only one who can solve Meto’s disappearance and reclaim the stolen song.
Biography
film director
Dechen Roder
(Bhutan, 1980) is one of the few female filmmakers from the kingdom of Bhutan. She started off making small documentaries and videos, through her production company – Dakinny Productions, incepted in 2009. In 2015 she wrote and directed Lo Sum Choe Sum (3 Year 3 Month Retreat), which competed in the Berlinale Shorts and other festivals around the world. The same year she began production of her debut feature film, Honeygiver Among the Dogs (recipient of the ACF 2016 post-production award and the HANIFF 2014 project market award), which premiered at the Busan International Film Festival 2017, had its European premiere at Berlinale 2017, and won three awards at the Fribourg International Film Festival 2017. It was also the first film from Bhutan to be nominated for an Asia Pacific Screen Award 2017 in the Cultural Diversity category. I, the Song is her second feature film.
FILMOGRAFIA
Boy of Good Waste (cm, 2005), Original Photocopy of Happines (cm, 2011), Heart in the Mandala (mm, 2012), Lo Sum Che Sum (3 Year 3 Month Retreat, cm, 2015), Honeygiver Among the Dogs (2016), I, the Song (2024).
Declaration
film director
“I initially wanted to make two films. The first was inspired by a local newspaper article in which a remote Bhutanese community claimed that the capital had “stolen” a sacred song, performing it on TV, radio, and stage for entertainment. The community felt the song was taken out of context, “desecrated,” and would anger their female guardian deity. They demanded the song “back,” which struck me as both tragic and absurd—how can one “bring back a song”? The second film focused on two female friends, each accused of appearing in local “pornography” filmed without their consent. In one case, a friend was recorded during an intimate encounter and her then-lover later released it as “revenge” porn, spreading virally on social media (WeChat). In a small country of 700,000, such abuse and exposure is especially damaging and frightening—one need not be famous to be painfully visible. Few saw her as a victim.”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR, SCREENPLAY: Dechen Roder. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Rangoli Agarwal. FILM EDITING: Noémie Loeve, Dechen Roder. PRODUCTION DESIGN, COSTUME DESIGN: Kunzang Wangmo. MUSIC: Tashi Dorji. SOUND: Mikaël Barre. CAST: Tandin Bidha, Jimmie Wangyal Tshering, Tshering Dorji, Sonam Lhamo, Dorji Wangdi. PRODUCTION: Dechen Roder for Dakinny Productions, Johann Chapelan for Girelle Production.
CONTACT: Revolver www.revolverfilm.it
