A blanket of gloomy gray cloud hovers above a remote village in the heavily symbolic Bhutanese drama “The Red Phallus.” Relating the tale of a 16-year-old girl driven slowly to madness by the men around her, Tashi Gyeltshen’s noteworthy feature debut is marked by pungent criticism of stifling social norms and psychological violence that’s rarely found in cinema from The Happy Kingdom. Though a tad slow at times, “Phallus” leaves a lasting impression and ought to get a boost for an impressive festival run begun at Busan thanks to screenings at FilMart and Hong Kong.
“I doubt anyone can get out of this paradise.” That’s how one character describes the constraints of life in the valley of Phobjika, near the Black Mountains in central Bhutan. This bitterly ironic observation sums up the spirit of Gyeltshen’s film, which takes us to a place of great beauty and...
“I doubt anyone can get out of this paradise.” That’s how one character describes the constraints of life in the valley of Phobjika, near the Black Mountains in central Bhutan. This bitterly ironic observation sums up the spirit of Gyeltshen’s film, which takes us to a place of great beauty and...
- 3/18/2019
- by Richard Kuipers
- Variety Film + TV
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