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

Can happiness be measured? Bhutan has invented the scale of "Gross National Happiness" to calculate the well-being of its citizens, a philosophy developed by King Jigme Singye Wangchuck with a strong influence on national politics that is proudly promoted by the media. Amber Kumar Gurung, a forty-year-old man who lives with his elderly mother, dreams of finding love and happiness. Amber is also one of the agents who travel door to door throughout the country to meet people from all walks of life, to whom he submits 148 different questions: from personality tests and sense of satisfaction, belonging or anger, to measuring the well-being of agricultural workers based on the number of cows and donkeys they own. The answers reveal a still-patriarchal society, the fragility of happiness, and the reality that the two directors reveal, debunking false impressions. Interviewing them, Amber himself will feel that something inside him is changing.

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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.