By popularity, the Kingdom of Bhutan is the happiest nation on Earth, however the “Agent of Happiness” seeks to discover that assertion. The documentary by Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó follows the routine of 40-year-old Amber, considered one of 75 authorities employees employed to survey folks’s happiness on a mathematical scale, and it particulars not solely the lives of his interviewees, but in addition that of the agent himself. It stays, for many half, a withheld, no-frills investigation, whose commentary is mild and self-evident. With no “speaking heads,” the movie performs out extra like dramatized docufiction, however finally, its patchwork of topics is woven collectively to create one thing melodic and significant.

Lush photographs of the agricultural mountainside lure us into Bhutan, and into the lifetime of Amber, as he gently clips his mom’s nails earlier than donning his authorities robes. As he drives by means of quite a few villages together with his associate, fellow agent Guna, they take heed to basic Bollywood tunes (like “Aye Mere Humsafar,” about fellow vacationers) as they casually talk about their private and romantic lives. Every little thing feels atypical and acquainted, not less than till the clipboards come out and the duo sits right down to ask particular person farmers — and finally, city-dwellers — a collection of 148 questions that, to an outsider’s ear, can’t assist however sound weird.

That is all in service of calculating the nation’s Gross Nationwide Happiness, a share level on which Bhutan prides itself. The standards ranges from the target — the variety of cows, goats or tractors somebody owns, although this hardly applies to a rustic’s rising city youth — to the subjective, and even summary. Do you belief your neighbors? How is your work life steadiness? What’s your sense of karma?

Are you content?

Nobody within the movie feels pressured or compelled to reply, and the method comes off as a mere job for Amber, somewhat than a jingoistic responsibility. Nonetheless, everybody readily participates. For some it’s a matter of pleasure, whereas for others, it’s a gentle, “let’s get it over with” inconvenience. Nonetheless, although “Agent of Happiness” begins as a procedural documentary, its true coronary heart and soul are revealed by means of its use of dramatic instruments, like quiet close-ups and voiceovers from varied topics. The movie begins transferring extra distinctly on this route as soon as it introduces city bar dancer Dechen, a transgender lady to whom only a few (if any) of Amber’s questions apply.

The movie successfully cedes narrative management to her, as she speaks of her household historical past and abstractions like looming despondency. The identical narrative company is ceded to numerous different ladies in distinctive circumstances, from three disgruntled wives of the identical man who discover consolation in each other, to a youngster whose insecurities are magnified by the world algorithmically curated by her TikTok feed (most frequently, engaging white ladies). These ladies’s lives don’t match neatly into the information of the federal government’s survey. As an alternative, Bhattarai and Zurbó channel their expressions (and in some circumstances, their incapacity to completely specific themselves) by means of photographs of nature, and thru Ádám Balázs’ melodic, chiming musical rating. The additional the movie goes on, the extra it transitions from literal and observational, to poetic impressionistic.

“Agent of Happiness” has its amusing moments too. Every topic’s “happiness degree” (as decided by their survey) pops up on display after Amber interviews them, together with the numerical solutions to a number of questions, as if they have been online game statistics. Nonetheless, the shift in context round these numbers, relying on the film’s tone in a given section, renders them both ironic solutions to questions jokingly implied (what does the person with three wives consider his life?) or devastating truths about what happiness may actually imply for among the folks we meet, and the way far out of attain it could be. Amber, as an example, is ethnically Nepali (Bhutan has a historical past of delegitimizing Lhotshampa Nepali folks), and his sense of belonging relies not solely on a cultural notion of contentment, however on politics and paperwork.

With quite a few photographs of smartphones, framed as home windows to need, and scenes of informal dialog that slowly reveal lingering discontentment, “Agent of Happiness” makes use of significant visible distinction to scrutinize Bhutan’s narrative about itself. It re-injects a vibrant sense of nuance into an train that, although nominally geared towards gauging humanity, too typically reduces it to a quantity. The result’s each calming and humanizing, as if it have been a creative embodiment of the very contentment the Kingdom boasts.