A warm, funny story of the socio-political transformation of Bhutan and the ambivalence towards encroaching modernity, in which Western values crash against age-old culture.
Kingdom of Bhutan, 2006. Modernization has finally arrived, and with the King's abdication the biggest change of all: democracy. To teach the people how to vote, the authorities organize a mock election, but the locals seem unconvinced. Travelling to rural Bhutan where religion is more popular than politics, the election supervisor discovers that a monk is planning a mysterious ceremony for the election day. Meanwhile, an American antique arms collector has come to purchase a coveted 19th-century rifle. He fails to anticipate that the Bhutanese are less susceptible to persuasion when it comes to the laws of commerce.
"I would say this is more of a comedic story. Bhutan was the last country in the world to allow television; we were the last country in the world to allow Internet. And the film is really about the social changes and implications that these technologies coming in so late have had." (Pawo Choyning Dorji)