Popular Bhutanese Films and Movies
1. The Monk and the Gun
2023 | 1h 47m | PG-13
An American travels into Bhutan in search of a valuable antique rifle and crosses paths with a young monk who wanders through the serene mountains, instructed by his teacher to make things right again.
Read more about The Monk and the Gun here.
2. Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
2019 | 1h 50m | PG
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom is a simple, lighthearted yet mesmerising film infused with Bhutanese humour. The movie features the journey of a discontented teacher, Ugyen, from the capital city Thimphu, being assigned to the remotest school in Bhutan. Ugyen's dream is to eventually move to Australia to become a professional singer. His character is very relatable to many young people who harbour hopes to reside overseas with the thinking that the grass is greener elsewhere.
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom makes history as the first Bhutanese movie to receive an Oscar nomination
3. Agent of Happiness
2024 | 1h 34m
Amber, a happiness agent, travels the Bhutanese Himalayas surveying people's happiness. On his remote mountain journey, he searches for fulfillment.
4. Milarepa
2006 | 1h 30m | PG
Milarepa is a tale of greed and vengeance - demons, magic, murder and redemption. It is the story of the man who became Tibet's greatest mystic.
5. Travellers & Magicians
2003 | 1h 48m
The two men embark on parallel, if separate, journeys. Their yearning is a common one--for a better and different life. Dondup, delayed by the timeless pace of his village, is forced to hitchhike through the beautiful wild countryside of Bhutan to reach his goal. He shares the road with a monk, an apple seller, a papermaker and his beautiful young daughter, Sonam.
6. Phörpa
1999 | 1h 33m | PG
While the soccer World Cup is being played in France, two young Tibetan refugees arrive at a monastery/boarding school in exile in India. Its atmosphere of serene contemplation is somewhat disrupted by soccer fever, the chief instigator being a young student, the soccer enthusiast Orgyen.
7. Hema Hema
2016 | 1h 36m
Somewhere deep in a forest of Bhutan, there is a gathering every twelve years of men and women chosen by the Old Man to enjoy a few days of anonymity. Masked silhouettes participate in rituals, performances and dances. Faceless, the men and the women allow themselves to be lascivious, playful and daring.
8. Gyalsey: Legacy of a Prince
2015 | 1h 40m
Gyalsey, Legacy of a Prince is a dramatic feature film set in the Himalayan country of Bhutan, the last surviving Vajrayana Buddhist kingdom in the world. The essence of the Buddhist theme of the bodhisattva vow is artfully woven into this modern love story.
9. The Red Phallus
2018 | 1h 25m
We all live in one story but different realities. Or perhaps, we all live in one reality but different stories. And in between, there is just a mask.
10. Kushuthara: Pattern of Love
2017 | 1h 32m
One single thread weaves the story of the past and present lives of two people. Two people born on the opposite sides of the world, destined to meet, and realize karmic conditions and their consequences. On the surface, it is a typical boy-meets-girl theme, but only on the surface.