AGENT OF HAPPINESS

Dir. Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó | 94 min | 2024 | Match Frame Productions (Hungary), Sound Pictures (Bhutan) | U

How can you measure happiness? The country of Bhutan has introduced a Gross National Happiness index, and Amber is one of the agents who go from home to home, speaking to Bhutan’s inhabitants and determining how happy they are. He himself, a 40+ year-old who still lives with his mother, is a hopeless romantic who dreams of real love; an agent of happiness searching for his own happiness. Together with Amber we embark on a journey across Bhutan, meeting people of various demographics, reminding us of the fragility and beauty of our own happiness. No matter where in the world we live.

Until the middle of the 20th century, Bhutan was cut off from the rest of the world and often viewed as an inaccessible, exotic Buddhist kingdom. One of Bhutan’s attributes from the 1990s is a holistic state development philosophy that views the wellness and happiness of the inhabitants in balance with economic factors.

In Nepali, Dzongkha and English with subtitles in Latvian and English.