Movies Similar to Bhutan: The Dictatorship of Happiness

1000 Hands of the Guru(2016)

Four monks, a royal scholar, and their American guru are fighting to save Bhutan's sacred arts while learning the art of letting go.

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The Godmother(2025)

Marzena Sowa is a quintessential contemporary European: independent, aware of how the world works—or should work—and single. After her mother’s death, she is consumed by longing and sets off for her distant homeland, a Polish village where her beloved aunt Niuszka—an embodiment of joie de vivre and peace with herself—lived her entire life under the heavy weight of patriarchy. The film becomes a collision of social models, resolved with an open ending.

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The Dragon House(2005)

The Dragon House portrays the confrontation between tradition and modernity which the Kingdom of Bhutan is currently experiencing. This is done by means of two Bhutanese characters: a young Buddhist monk, heir to the local tradition, and the first disc jockey to dare to play House and Techno music in the small Himalayan kingdom.

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Make Me Happy: A Monkey's Search for Happiness(2012)

Comedian and ventriloquist Nina Conti explores the world of new age and alternative therapies in a quest for self-knowledge, enlightenment and happiness. With her puppet Monkey as the voice of scepticism, Nina undergoes naked yoga, laughter therapy and shamanic ritual, before taking part in primal screaming and rebirth at a three-day retreat in the wilds of Scotland.

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The Happiness Prescription(2008)

HAPPINESS. We know it immediately when we see it in others. We spend our time, money and even our lives searching for it. So how do we achieve one of life's most coveted offerings? Renowned author, speaker and spiritual teacher Deepak Chopra offers us a powerful approach to possessing happiness in his groundbreaking work, The Happiness Prescription. Deepak Chopra discusses the Ten Keys to a Happy Life. Discover a contemporary life-changing prescription for how to live life joyfully and with greater awareness of all things.

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Agent of Happiness(2024)

The documentary team follows two happiness agents in their forties who spend a month and a half on the road twice a year, going door-to-door with their questionnaires in isolated villages in the Himalayas. The filmmakers undertake to provide an intimate insight into the daily lives and desires of Bhutanese people, and also seek the answer to the universal question of whether happiness can really be measured. Gross National Happiness promises a heart-warming journey into a mysterious, fairytale-like world, which is the exact opposite of the social order dominated by consumption and desires.

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Gothix(2023)

An innovative and charismatic influencer is suddenly exiled from her community of creative partners and colleagues when she states an opinion that she did not know was “unacceptable” in their eyes.

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Happy Pills(2023)

A journey through six different countries and characters into a world where chemistry is the ultimate response to human pursuits of well-being.

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Bhutan: Taking the Middle Path to Happiness(2007)

Imagine a country where happiness is the guiding principle of government. Imagine a people who see all life as sacred and the source of their happiness, a place with an abundance of clean and renewable energy, a nation committed to preserving its culture and whose progress is measured by obtaining Gross National Happiness for its people. Where is this Shangri-La? Bhutan. But can a place like Bhutan really exist? Can such ideals be realized? Can this small, geographically isolated country tucked away in the Himalayans truly protect its environment and culture as they open their doors to the West? The answer is rooted in the Bhutanese view of the world, anchored in Buddhism, with the simple message that happiness can only be found by taking the middle path the path that balances the needs of man with the powerful spirits of nature.

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A Love Letter to Coopers Cafe

During the summer of 2023, my father decided to hang up the boots and walk away from the family business of 25 years. This is my love letter to the cafe in which my family and I have worked, encapsulating the good vibes and cheery nature the business held for a quarter of a century.

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Bhutan: The Snowman's Trek(2018)

Ultramarathon runners Ben Clark, Anna Frost and Tim Olson travel to Bhutan's high Himalayan landscape to try and set a speed record on the world's hardest trek.

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Crossing Bhutan(2016)

Bhutan is known as the last Himalayan Buddhist Kingdom and one of the happiest places on earth. 'Crossing Bhutan' tells the story of four veteran athletes and their journey to explore Bhutan’s enigmatic policy of Gross National Happiness by making the first 485-mile, border-to-border crossing of this isolated kingdom entirely by foot and bike.

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Bhutan: Following in the Footsteps of Matthieu Ricard(2024)

Buddhist monk and photographer Matthieu Picard as he returns to the Asian country in the Himalayas where he spent a decade after seven years away, revisiting breathtaking landscapes and experiencing local traditions.

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Heaven Can't Wait(2023)

The moving story of Carlo Acutis, a young British-Italian amateur computer programmer who died in 2006, aged 15, as a result of leukemia. However, even though he is no longer here, to this day Carlo continues to be a great symbol of strength among young people. The documentary brings together a series of reports from people who entrusted themselves to the intercession of the boy, beatified by the Catholic Church in 2020, and had their lives transformed.

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Happiness(2014)

Peyangki is a dreamy and solitary eight-year-old monk living in Laya, a Bhutanese village perched high in the Himalayas. Soon the world will come to him: the village is about to be connected to electricity, and the first television will flicker on before Peyangki's eyes.

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The Lost Kingdom of the Yeti(2018)

From the Bhutanese wilderness, scientist and yeti-hunter Mark Evans hears fresh reports of new sightings; Mark mounts a considerable expedition into the Himalayas and takes his search for the yeti further than ever before.

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Dancing Auschwitz: Old Family Footage

The animate body as a medium for the celebration of life is on display as a young Jane Korman dances with her parents and their friends, all of whom are Holocaust survivors, in an Australian forest.

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A Musical Journey: On the Road to Bhutan(2011)

The Frisian singer Linde Nijland was always fond of the combination of traveling and singing. An invitation to listen to a concert in honor of the coronation of the fifth king of Bhutan was the ideal occasion in 2008 to make a months-long journey through South East together with multi-instrumentalist Bert Ridderbos.

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The Definition of Happiness(2025)

In a world obsessed with happiness, so many of us are feeling more lost than ever. After a life-altering accident, Tim travels across four countries to explore how we define happiness — and whether we’re even asking the right questions. What he discovers could change the way we live, and what we value, forever.

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Martin(2017)

Documentary film about Martin Park, a homeless man living in Dublin, and his friendship with photographer and filmmaker Donal Moloney.

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