One of the most surprising Oscar nominations of recent years came in 2019 when Bhutan’s “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” landed the country’s first nom in the Best International Feature Film category. That film’s first-time director, Pawo Choyning Dorji, has now unveiled his second movie, “The Monk and the Gun,” which played at both the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals, and in the process suggested that Pawo is not a flash-in-the-pan — instead, he’s a genuine talent at making feel-good movies that are charming without being cloying.
“The Monk and the Gun,” though, is a more mature and more intriguing work than its predecessor.