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The first feature film to be shot entirely in Bhutan reflects the country’s natural beauty and maps the cultural crossroads it faces between a traditional past and an encroaching pop culture. The multi-layered tale features non-actor Tshewand Dendup as Dondup, a smartly coiffed government official who can’t wait to escape village life and head to America. His journey to pick up a visa in the capital city leads him to a host of provincial characters and becomes the pretext for a story-within-the-story that remakes The Postman Always Rings Twice with a Bhutanese twist. Combining a morality tale that dispels the illusions of emigration with a dose of ironic self-awareness, Travellers and Magicians navigates the universal and the local. Director Khyentse Norbu, a holy lama in his native country, creates a powerful foundation for Bhutan’s cinema that reminds me of early Italian neo-realism. Like those Italian films, Norbu’s subtle and unpretentious portrait of contemporary Bhutan will shape the way foreigners imagine his country for years to come. In Dzongkha with English subtitles. (108 minutes)
BY MATTIAS FREY
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