A Bhutan Close-Up

Director Dechen Roder's film was Bhutan's submission for the international feature film category at the 98th Oscars. In Delhi recently to screen her film, she talks of the effect of Bhutan's jump into modernity, working with Indian crews, and how Bhutan is becoming a 'favourite' destination for film-shoots.

- NUPUR BASU

BHUTANESE director Dechen Roder was in India to screen her much acclaimed film - I, the Song - Bhutan's official Oscar submission for the 98th Academy Awards. It was the opening film at Delhi's Asian Women's Film Festival organised by the International Association of Women for Radio and Television (IAWRT) recently.

This was the 45-year-old Dechen Roder’s second feature film and it swept up eight national awards in Bhutan in the categories of Best Director, Best Editor, Best Screenplay, Best Production, Best Original Music Score, Best Actor Female and Male and Best Film In short, the film took the Himalayan kingdom by storm. It bagged the Best Director and Critics Picks awards at the Tallin Black festival at a premiere screening. So far, it has been screened in about 30 film festivals and theaters in Bhutan.

The film tells the story of a schoolteacher whose life is turned upside down as she is accused of being in a non-consensual pornographic video and loses her job. Traumatised and shunned, she then travels across Bhutan to track down the woman who resembles her and who she has been mistaken for. The film is nuanced and layered and asks many questions about identity as it unfolds. Excerpts from a conversation with Roder in Delhi after the successful screening of the film at the India International Centre:

Tell us about your leading lady in your film.