Fall from Grace – A fable of a Sadhu and a moment of weakness

Tshering Penjoor is a Director from Bhutan. His story is of a wandering Sadhu who has taken vows of celibacy, abstinence from alcohol and a pledge not to kill. His disciplined life comes crumbling down when he enters a village and is tricked by a woman to have a sip of wine.

Making this movie in a narrow village that many would describe as a slum, was a challenge due to the sheer number of people who flocked to the scene. When we arrived at the predetermined apartment in the heart of the village, there were 30 women, men and children curiously watching us unload our equipment from the van. Within a few minutes there were 110 people, Looking over balconies, standing on roof tops and crowding the narrow street where we were getting ready to shoot our first scene. When Tshering yelled, “Silence on the set”, we had to clear 230 people from the view of the camera. As the chief assistant director, my job was to coordinate crowd control. We placed crew members on all four sides of the shoot and held back the masses of villagers as best we could. There wasn’t much we could do about the giant water buffallo who broke through the crowds, pulling large wagons of sand or lumber, guided by fire eyed drivers snapping their whips on the backs of the great beasts. Nor could we stop the motorcycle drivers who honked and drove forward through the crowds, more interested in seeing the action from the center, then obeying our requests for silence. Our local contact who was providing his apartment as a base for our shoot, helped clear the streets of his uncles, cousins, nephews and great grandparents. When a drunk wandered through he began beating him and forced him to flee the village. The shooting continued for eight hours. In the end the Sadhu drank some wine, killed the goat and slept with the woman. The crew of 19 packed up and left the village. The only thing lost was the grace of the Sadhu.