Untying Knots: Writer/Director Pawo Choyning Dorji Talks ‘The Monk and the Gun’
Pawo Choyning Dorji behind the scenes of The Monk and the Gun. All images courtesy of Roadside Attractions
by CHAD KENNERK
His name means ‘the brave one’. It’s a fitting description for the youngest recipient of Bhutan's highest civilian award, The Druk Thuksey (The Heart Son of the Thunder Dragon). The son of a diplomat and a student of the world, Bhutanese filmmaker Pawo Choyning Dorji has lived in places as varied as the Middle East, Switzerland, India, and Appleton, Wisconsin, where he received his degree in Political Science. Dorji began his career as a photographer, telling stories through pictures. His love of photography and writing eventually took a natural evolution into moving pictures.
Through his work as a filmmaker and photographer, Dorji is on a mission to share Bhutan and Bhutanese culture with the world. His directorial debut, Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, captured worldwide attention. The film had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival and went on to make history at the 94th Academy Awards by becoming the first Bhutanese film to receive an Oscar nomination for Best International Feature. Shot in a remote Himalayan village without electricity, the production famously relied on solar batteries, natural light, and locals for the main cast. His second feature, The Monk and the Gun, highlights the difference between innocence and ignorance as Bhutan becomes one of the world’s youngest democracies.
There isn’t a word for storytelling in Dorji’s language. When someone asks for a story, they say, “Please untie a knot for me.” The Monk and the Gun weaves and beautifully unties an intricate, poetic knot. The story takes place against the true events of 2006 when the remote Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan became the last nation to connect to the internet and allow television. When Bhutan’s King announces that he will cede his power and give people the ability to vote, an elderly lama (Kelsang Choejey) instructs his young disciple Tashi (Tandin Wangchuk) to bring him two guns before the full moon. As the thought-provoking political satire arrives in theatres on 9 February from Roadside Attractions, Film Review speaks with writer/director/producer Pawo Choyning Dorji on his sophomore feature and bringing Bhutan back to the big screen.
In conversation with writer/director Pawo Choyning Dorji
Film Review (FR): Having lived in many places, you bring a unique perspective to Bhutanese stories. Has your worldview helped to further illuminate and appreciate aspects of your culture?
Pawo Choyning Dorji (PD): Definitely. In Bhutan we have a saying which says, “You will never see your own eyelashes, because they are too close to you.” For me, yes I’m a Bhutanese, but as you mentioned, I grew up all over the world. That multicultural upbringing and education has really shaped me and the way I want to tell stories. Being Bhutanese, yet being an outsider, I am in this unique position to be able to see my own eyelashes [Laughs.] The other thing is the way I tell my stories. My multicultural background helps with that.
With The Monk and the Gun and my previous film Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, both are uniquely, authentically Bhutanese. These are Bhutanese stories: about this culture, tradition, and community that’s so isolated from the modern world. Even geographically speaking, it’s about a world that many people have never seen and a language they have never heard. Men who wear skirts and see the value of yak dung. I think because of my upbringing, I can tell these stories in a way that becomes relevant for the rest of the world. Both films have done exceptionally well with the international audience. I find it so beautiful that audiences across the world can find their own personal connection with these stories. Yes, it is my upbringing, but it is also a testament to humanity. There’s more that makes us similar than dissimilar.
(FR): This story is rooted in true events, what was your research process as you developed the script?
(PD): I studied political science and my father was a diplomat, so I kind of grew up in this political circle. From a young age I witnessed how, in the Western world, democracy and modernisation were elements that were very celebrated and held up with a lot of veneration. On the other hand, I come from a culture that is one of the most isolated countries in the world, not because we were pressured to be, but because we chose to be. We felt that was our way of preserving who we are; our culture, our spirituality. At the same time, I think this story is about how, in the pursuit of something you think you need, you end up losing what you have. That’s really what happened in Bhutan.
(FR): There is a freedom, a beauty, and a power in the purity of the people and culture at the centre of this story. You not only spotlight that, but show the wisdom in it.
(PD): I always tell people that Bhutan, being a Buddhist nation, has so much wisdom and compassion to share with the world. I feel like film is the most powerful medium through which we can share that. I’ve always said this film is about innocence. Innocence is a quality that is so celebrated by the Bhutanese. When you modernise, when you join the modern world, sometimes people get the quality of innocence and ignorance mixed up.
(FR): How does your spiritual life inform your work and lead you to find the sacred within your stories?
(PD): I come from a country that is very rooted in Buddhist traditions, but then on top of that, I am a devout, practising Buddhist. After college, before I became a filmmaker, I spent considerable time in the Himalayas studying Buddhist philosophy. I think in the films I’ve made, my spiritual beliefs do shine through. I’m always conscious about it, I don’t want people to watch this film and think, “Oh, Pawo is being very preachy about his spiritual path.” That’s not how it is. I use my spiritual path as a medium through which I tell these worldly stories. With anything you do, not only filmmaking, but just day-to-day worldly life, our motivations are very important.
Our motivation should be the foundation upon which we start any work. For filmmaking, for sharing stories, I’m very inspired by The Buddha’s own words. Filmmaking in the end is art and The Buddha said, “The word we use for art is actually falsehood and illusion. The creation of art is the creation of illusions and falsehood in order to connect individuals to the truth, to the reality.” At the end of the day, truth and reality – for different cultures, for different spiritual people – can mean anything. That is what motivates me. The films I want to make, I believe are creations of illusions, which I hope will take the audience into a better place, a reality of their own, and the truth that they seek.
(FR): There is a lot of subtle symbolism in the story. One of the images that comes to mind is of the three men on the bench. Benji, a character embracing modernisation, sits on the opposite end of a man from an older generation, who is carving a cultural symbol, and a westerner sits between them.
(PD): The phallus is the most symbolic item in the film actually. I’m glad you brought it up. Bhutan, as I was saying, is a Buddhist country. We are a very unique Buddhist country, because we are the only Vajrayana country in the world. In the Vajrayana tradition, sometimes the best solution to a problem is a solution that is similar to the problem itself. If you have water in your ears, we’ll say, “Put more water in to get that water out.” As a Buddhist country, our ultimate aim is to achieve enlightenment. What is the biggest obstacle to enlightenment? Well, it is inhibition according to us. How do you destroy inhibition? By giving you more and more inhibition. That is why we are a culture that has phalluses. When you see a phallus, what do you feel? You feel uncomfortable. That’s inhibition. So we destroy that by giving you more phalluses.
In pre-modernisation, pre-democratisation Bhutan, phalluses were very important, because they symbolised the path to enlightenment. As we modernised, as we became more educated, suddenly we started getting embarrassed of phalluses. We were like, “Oh, what would outsiders, modern educated people, think of us as a culture that venerates wooden penises?” Sadly, phalluses disappeared. In this film, the gun symbolises modernisation, the coming of change and outside influence. To counter that, I said, “Ok, let’s add a phallus.” [Laughs.]
(FR): As well as the outside force of western culture, there’s also a dichotomy in the film between the rural and the urban. In times of change, how do we move forward while also preserving what’s most important?
(PD): That’s the reason why I made this film. I think in order to move forward, you have to know where you’re coming from. I don’t want people to think the message I’m trying to get across is anti-change, anti-modernisation, anti-democracy – that’s not it. With this film, I’m trying to tell the story of change, of transition, of the loss of innocence. I feel like change is inevitable. Look at me, I’m a product of the modern world. People in Bhutan wouldn’t say I’m a very traditional Bhutanese. I am a product of change, of modernisation. I think in order for us to move forward, we have to know where we came from. We have to hold onto what makes us Bhutanese, what makes our culture unique and keep that alive in the modern world. Guns are inevitable, but we must have guns in one hand and phalluses in the other hand. [Laughs.]
(FR): What was your experience working with the people and the village of Ura?
(PD): It was amazing. I think professional filmmakers would be shocked at how we work. We have actors who have never acted in films before, we have crew members who are working on a film set for the first time. I may be the director, but I also have to be involved with costumes, with production design. It’s very amateurish, but there’s a lot of passion. There’s a lot of authenticity and I think that’s what makes filmmaking so beautiful.
(FR): As a director, how do you encourage that authenticity in the performances?
(PD): I cast very early. Since I’m working with non-professionals, I cast people whose real lives may mirror the characters that I have created. I rehearse with them early and help them get into the character. I try to keep the production as authentic as possible. With Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, we could have cheated that. We didn’t have to hike to the world’s most remote school at 17,000 feet above sea level, suffer altitude sickness and go for two months without a shower, but I did that to make it authentic – to make it authentic for the cast, but also ourselves.
If we go through the journey that the protagonist goes through and we feel the real emotions of that journey, then I think it can relate to the film. I also try to shoot in a linear fashion. That might not be so productive in the professional filmmaking industry, but with both films, I tried to shoot in a linear fashion, so that my non-professional actors can grow with the story. In the end, the emotions that we see people going through in the story, those are as authentic as it gets, because for them, this was also the end of the journey.
(FR): Do you remember your first experience going to the cinema?
(PD): In Bhutan at that time, we didn’t have Bhutanese films. Even now, our industry is very small – I’m one of a few filmmakers in Bhutan. Interestingly, TV was banned, but we had a local cinema that was really made for the Indian population there in Bhutan. They would always show Hindi movies, Bollywood films. A lot of singing and dancing in the rain. Four-hour long epic films. That was my introduction – Amitabh Bachchan and the classics of Bollywood. Those were the first films I watched. Of course, as I grew up, I was able to watch amazing films by filmmakers who have since really shaped the way I want to tell stories. When I was on the Oscar campaign trail, I met director Trần Anh Hùng of France, who made The Taste of Things. I went up to him and I said, “Director, I watched your film 30 years ago as a 10-year-old, The Scent of Green Papaya, and it was the most poetic, beautiful experience I ever felt – as a 10-year-old! Now, to be here, sharing a stage in the panel discussion with you, that’s so amazing.”
PAWO CHOYNING DORJI started his film making career under the guidance of film director and renowned Buddhist Lama, Khyentse Norbu. Pawo worked as Norbu’s assistant for Norbu’s films Vara: A Blessing (2013) and Hema Hema: Sing me a Song While I Wait (2016). Pawo made his directorial debut in 2019 with Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom. The film was shot in one of the remotest human settlements in the world, so remote that the production relied on solar batteries and local yak herders to be the main cast of the film. The film went on to become a festival favourite, winning numerous awards, before making history by becoming the first ever Bhutanese film to secure an Oscar nomination when it was nominated for Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards. The Monk and the Gun is Pawo’s second feature film as writer, director, and producer. Pawo is the youngest recipient of the Royal Order of Bhutan, The Druk Thuksey (The Heart Son of the Thunder Dragon), an award bestowed upon him by King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. The award recognizes individual for distinguished service to the Bhutanese nation and people.
The Monk and the Gun is available in select theaters from 9 February
