26/11/2024 - In Dechen Roder’s slow yet persistent sophomore feature, one woman's search to clear her name becomes an existential quest to discover the truth behind her doppelgänger’s disappearance

In the not-quite-ghost story between not-quite-sisters I, the Song [+see also:
interview: Dechen Roder
film profile], Bhutanese filmmaker Dechen Roder threads together a quilt of mistaken identities and austere desire in Bhutan, complete with absolutely sumptuous lighting design that brings the film to a whole new level. This film is Roder’s richly textured sophomore feature, coming eight years after the premiere of her noir-inspired mystery, Honeygiver Among the Dogs (2016), and trades the urban underworld for Bhutan’s beautiful landscapes. For I, the Song, which ping-pongs between the country’s social spheres and more nature-based settings, Roder (who also wrote and produced the film) picked up the Best Director Award in the Critics’ Picks competition of the 2024 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

Shy, soft-spoken schoolteacher Nima (Tandin Bidha) is unceremoniously fired from her job after authorities catch wind of a short intimate video (coined the “blue video” because of its lighting) circulating on WeChat which appears to depict Nima. She quickly resolves to clear up the matter and finds that it depicts a more extroverted woman named Meto (also played by Bidha), to whom she bears an uncanny resemblance, except that Meto has short hair, bangs and a small mole under her right eye. Nima thus sets out to find her doppelgänger and clear her name, but soon her quest becomes increasingly more existential, leading to parallel stories related to Meto’s disappearance.

Nima first meets Meto’s ex-boyfriend Tandin (Jimmy Wangyal Tshering), a guitarist and singer at a neon-lit local bar. Long-haired and tattooed Tandin, with the raspy voice of a rock star, has a permanent scowl on his face — understandably, Nima is both deterred and strangely intrigued by his persona. Meeting Meto’s friend Chuni (Sonam Lhamo), business owner Phuntsho (Tshering Dorji) who employed Meto, as well as Meto’s own family, leads to further merging around Nima’s identity, which Roder uses to suggest a more gently mythical angle. Is Nima just another form of Meto – a ghost or a transformation of her? Or perhaps they are one soul split in two?

At almost two hours, I, the Song could easily have been trimmed up around the edges, yet each scene brims with such visual richness that you can’t help but forgive Roder this rather indulgent runtime. The filmmaker is not afraid to lean into a more stylised approach, oscillating between the brighter, more lush outer world and the murkier and foggier underbelly in which Nima is thrust, an environment made all the more special by an intense lighting design. Watching the “blue video” literally brings Nima into this new world, which immediately turns blue as Roder makes use of extremely strong coloured lights in turn to illuminate interiors.

Although reality seems to bend at times, Roder's slow undercurrent of more magical elements never becomes stale — and probably for the best, given that I, the Song never dips into the many exoticising clichés that surround a country like Bhutan. But there is something deeply oneiric about her film, which leaves just enough space between scenes of Nima and Meto to keep the viewer wondering if there is something more connecting the two. A Wong Kar-Wai-esque quality is present in many of the scenes between Tandin and Meto as well as Tandin and Nima, where so much can be read between the lines.

Roder doesn’t forget about the beauty of her country either, providing glimpses of the green landscape and peppering her story with diegetic Dzongkha (Bhutan’s official national language) songs performed by Tandin, Meto, Nima and others. This is complemented by subtle, ambient experimental music made up of plucked strings and unidentifiable sounds that add to the dreamlike atmosphere. While remaining in the psychological drama-mystery territory, the film culminates with a more universal message about female solidarity. Nima, at first, is aghast that such a document as the blue video could ever represent her, but her quest takes her to new emotional places.

I, the Song is a Bhutanese-Norwegian-Italian-French production by Dakinny Productions (Bhutan), Fidalgo Film Production (Norway), Volos Films Italia (Italy) and Girelle Production (France). World sales are handled by Diversion Co, Ltd.