When the elementary school teacher Nima (Tandin Bidha) gets fired from her job because of a fast-spreading sex video with her look-alike, she decides that enough is enough. Since the appearance of the so-called “blue video” with her doppelganger, she’s been having trouble convincing people that it’s not her caught on camera. Nima’s boyfriend isn’t convinced of her innocence either, and when confronted by her sudden loss of income and too much gossip, he decides to go and stay with his parents for a while. On the other hand, one starts to understand why everyone’s reacting the way they do – the two women look like twins separated at birth, indeed. But all that sudden fuss and isolation is a hard blow for Nima who has walked through life with her head bowed down, doing everything by the book. With her reputation damaged beyond repair, she leaves Thimphu to find the mysterious woman and prove everyone wrong. In her naive presumption that things can go back to what they used to be, she takes on a long journey full of unexpected events.
I, The Song is screening at Tallinn Black Nights
In her sophomore feature that screens in the Critics’ Picks Competition of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Dechen Roder waves a subtle mystery plot and builds a dreamy postcard of Bhutan to the tunes of traditional music that plays a special, significant role in the movie already indicated in its title. There is a subplot surrounding “the theft of a local, traditional song by the town people”, and the urgency to return it to its original village. This particular part of the story is inspired by an article in a local newspaper that Roder has discovered, and in which “a remote community in Bhutan claimed that the capital city had “stolen” a sacred song of theirs, performing it on TV, over the radio, on stage, and essentially for entertainment”.
Also, two best female friends are dreaming of participating in a televised song contest specialised in old Bhutanese songs. The traditional and the modern music can both be heard from every corner: at the gatherings, during the rituals or from the car radio. Also, the original score composed by Tashi Dorji, one of the most interesting Buthanese musicians whose “idiosyncratic take on the instrument, one defined by movement and profound openness to technique, adds up to a post-colonial disembowelment of guitar traditions“, bridges all elements of the story together in a mixture of traditional and contemporary tunes, just like the movie itself wanders from the urban to rural landscapes. Last but not least, musician, composer and the founder of music studio Atsara Entertainment, Jimmy Wangyal Tshering slips into the male leading role (as the love interest of both women) in the movie, playing a charismatic stage performer Tandin.
“I, The Song” was also partially inspired by the injustices two of Roder’s friends, who ended up on sex videos without consent, went through. One of them was the victim of a revenge porn that destroyed her life. In her press notes, the helmer speaks about the damaging effect of such videos in a country as small as Bhutan: “With a small population of 700,000, this kind of abuse and unsolicited publicity becomes even more damaging and frightening. One doesn’t even have to be famous to be famously watched. Very few people saw her for what she was- the victim.” This is precisely what befalls Nima who is mobbed out from her peacefull life and is met with laughter and scorn wherever she turns.
It’s the connection between the loss of private (Nima) and collective (the village and their song) identity that forms the narrative of “I, The Song” that explores the consequences of recklesness in robbing someone of their privacy, or culture and legacy. Although incomparable in their aftermath, illicit videos that circulate on the internet and the theft of a local song that gets commercialized and torn from the community that was carrying its tradition for generations, are both heavy forms of abuse.
With its blue and yellow hues, the photography by Rangoli Agarwal creates a sense of suspense, never fully threatening but indicative of something bigger coming our way. With attention on the actors’ faces, catching the smallest changes in their reactions, the lens sucks us deep into the story. The visuals are very strong, and almost dreamlike in their vintage-looking beauty. At the same time, the film is edited in such a way that the overlapping of the two women’s stories often leads to confusion, particularly because of their identical looks. If it were built more linear, or at least in a more clear manner, the story would be much easier to follow. Regardless of that, “I, The Song” has an undeniable artistic quality
The mythical and mystical is what makes Dechen Roder’s film interesting, and the way she incorporates the story of a subterranean lake spirit into the narrative. It’s a film that captivates with its visuals, and whose music stays with the viewer for a long time.
Ahead of its premiere at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, it was announced that the Thai sales agent “Diversion” has acquired international sales rights to “I, The Song”. The deal excludes sales rights in Bhutan, France, Italy and Norway, there they are handled by Dakinny Productions, Girelle Production, Volos Films and Fidalgo, in that order.
