The Red Phallus (NR)

synopsis

In the gloomy and remote valley of Phobjika in central Bhutan, Sangay, a 16-year-old girl lives with her widower father, Ap Atsara, a popular craftsman who is specialized in making wooden phalluses. He has also been playing the role of an Atsara (a clown) in the annual tsechu (festival) for the last twenty years. Now, he wants to retire and pass on the mask to a younger talent. But, a dark secret from the past unfolds. And in the convoluted world of phalluses and masks, Sangay struggles to find congruence between her inner world and the outer relationships. She gets lost in the vast and beautiful landscape of Phobjikha in search of who she wants to become. Instead, she finds a mask. And behind it, her world.