What Happiness Is

Directed by Harald Friedl

Bhutan, long isolated, wants to open itself up to the world without succumbing to materialism. It wants to modernize without selling its soul. The benchmark for this development is "Gross National Happiness." In a project unique worldwide, officials from the Ministry of Happiness are traveling for eight months to determine happiness in the country using thick questionnaires. A road movie to the most distant of all goals: The film offers insight into a country that has until now been largely inaccessible to film footage.