SING ME A SONG

★★★★

OUT 1 JANUARY / CERT PG / 99 MINS

DIRECTOR Thomas Balmès

PARTICIPANTS Peyangki, Ugyen

Documentarian Thomas Balmès returns with a compelling sort-of sequel to 2013’s Happiness, revisiting boy monk Peyangki ten years after that film. In the decade since, the internet has reached his remote Bhutanese village of Laya and changed its inhabitants in profound ways. Now the boyish monks play games on their phones even as they chant their mantras, and exchange video messages with girls in the capital of Thimphu. With the world thus at their fingertips, the appeal of their austere village life seems to fade. In Balmès’ eyes, they gain little from these new technologies and nowhere near enough to compensate for what they — and all of us — lose, so that a deep sense of despair colours the film’s last act. It may seem harsh on modern life, but the personal sense of tragedy makes his case.