In 2006, television and internet have finally arrived in Bhutan, and the nation, which has been a monarchy, is gearing up for its first-ever election in history. The upcoming election sets people at odds with each other, as some struggle to understand why elections are necessary when they have a king. Faced with the need to educate its people about democracy, the government decides to conduct a mock election first. Then rumors spread that a respected elderly monk is looking to obtain firearms. This beautifully innocent film delves into the various misunderstandings surrounding the very first election in Bhutan, where religion holds more sway than politics, and the “Bhutanese solutions” to these issues. The Monk and the Gun is the second film by director Pawo Choyning Dorji, whose debut film Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film in 2022. (PARK Sun Young)