30. Film Festival della Lessinia
Bosco Chiesanuova (Italia)
23 August - 1 September 2024

Brother and sister walk a downhill path, side by side. Playing with a ball and laughing, they pass it back and forth. In an apparently carefree age, Gyembo and Tashi confide in one another, asking themselves what their rightful places are in this small village of Bhutan, today. The elder brother does not want to follow in his father's footsteps to become a Buddhist monk expert in traditional rituals, and take care of the family temple. He wants to play football, and with him is Tisha, who does not see herself in dresses and female occupations. The video camera of the two documentarists follows the two protagonists, revealing their doubts and difficulties of reconciling their own dreams with family aspirations. The identity of a country that from the mountains of the Himalayas has succeeded in maintaining a coherent cultural identity, far from Western influences,  draws light shadows on the faces of the two siblings. 

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  Dorottya Zurbó

  Dorottya Zurbó (Budapest, 1988) graduated in Film Theory and History at ELTE Budapest in 2014 and in 2021 she graduated from the University of Theatre and Film Arts, where she now teaches Transmedia Storytelling. Her films have received recognition at international festivals (Verzió, Balinale, Doclisboa and Zagrebdox), among these the feature films The Next Guardian (2017) and Easy Lessons (2018).
  

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  Arun Bhattarai

  Arun Bhattarai (Samtse, Bhutan, 1985) studied documentary directing through the DocNomads Joint Masters program, in Lisbon, Budapest and Brussels. After working for the Bhutan Broadcasting Service, he made his first short documentaries, screened in Germany and India. He is one of a handful of documentary directors and independent producers in Bhutan.