Final Rating: 4/5
Are the people of Bhutan truly happy? It’s a big question, but one that’s so important to the government of the southeast Asian country that a yearly “Gross National Happiness” survey is conducted by specially employed government agents.
Agent of Happiness, directed by Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó, follows a pair of agents as they interview people for the 2022 survey. But there is more underneath the surface than the survey reveals.
The tone of Agent is generally upbeat and quirky. After each interview, the filmmakers show a happiness score out of 10, comprised of silly criteria that reference memorable bits in the interview. A standard interview question asks if the interviewee has a tractor, for example, so when an interviewee responds with no, the filmmakers cheekily throw in “Tractors 00” into the list of factors making up their happiness score.
Far more interesting than the happy interviewees however are the interviewees who are not happy. Accordingly, the filmmakers spend the most time following up with these people. A drag performer in the city emphasizes that she is regularly worried about her mother’s health and scared about her position within the city. LGBT people in Bhutan face heavy discrimination within the country.
One man with three wives and eleven children reports that he could not be happier, while one of his wives holds back tears. Probed further (away from their husband) the wives speak to their lack of agency in their relationship, and the bond they’ve formed with each other, despite their general unhappiness in their marriage.
A girl in the countryside laments her ostracization within her school on account of coming from a poor family. One of two daughters of a single mother, she openly speaks to her mother’s alcoholism as a major stressor for her, making her feel as if she need be the primary caretaker of the family.
Even the agents’ happiness is somewhat suspect. Agent primarily focuses on Amber, a man in his 40s born in Bhutan to Nepali parents. Exiting the young years of his life, Amber wishes nothing more than to start a family, but has yet to marry. However, being of Nepali descent makes this difficult: as an ethnic Nepali, Amber’s Bhutanese citizenship was stripped from him as a child. Though he was born in Bhutan, and vocally loves the country he grew up in, he’s prevented from ever leaving. Is Amber’s happiness real if his freedom is not?
Agent reveals a Bhutan in which happiness is supposedly prioritized above all else, but where tradition and the status quo are so deeply ingrained that actual progress seems impossible. The 2022 Gross National Happiness survey revealed that only 6.4% of Bhutanese reported being “unhappy”. And when so many others are fully content, what’s the point of change?
Agent of Happiness was seen during the 2024 Hot Docs Film Festival. Check out our Hot Docs wrap up podcast.
