Honeygiver Among the Dogs

In Bhutan, a country of 700,000 people, everyone knows everyone else. Nima, a schoolteacher, faces trouble when an explicit intimate video surfaces online, featuring a woman who looks exactly like her. Determined to calm her students’ outraged parents, Nima embarks on a quest to find her naughty lookalike. But her doppelganger, Meto, has disappeared without a trace. The locals, struck by Nima’s uncanny resemblance to Meto, begin to believe she is Meto’s long-lost ghost. The village elders suggest singing Aum Tshomo’s sacred song to unravel the mystery. Now, Nima must open her heart and sing to rebuild her shattered life.

The traditional ‘3 Year 3 Month Retreat’ or ‘Lo Sum Choe Sum’ is practiced by Buddhist monks, nuns and other devout practitioners. 3 years, 3 months, and 3 days is calculated as the time needed to achieve a higher state of clarity and motivation. By cutting oneself off from the world, and delving into the inner mind, the retreat is supposed to transform the practitioner. Can Lhamo, a young, wounded girl facing the harsh gaze of the world, find her own form of retreat and redemption? Lo Sum Choe Sum was Bhutan’s first entry into the Berlinale Shorts Competition. It was made in 2015 by filmmaker Dechen Roder, who later produced and wrote and directed the well-acclaimed Honeygiver Among the Dogs.