Chauthi Koot

Director: Gurvinder Singh
India | Punjabi
2015 | 115min | Colour
Subtitles: English
Sunday, Nov 8 TIPA, 6:00 PM

Chauthi Koot evokes the atmosphere of suspicion, fear and paranoia of the Punjab in 1980s. It considers two loosely connected incidents: two Hindu friends trying to get to Amritsar and, some months earlier, a farmer who is told he has to kill the family dog. One story flows into the other and back – like a relay race one character passing on the baton to another. What binds the two is the condition of the common man trapped between the excesses of the military on one side and the militant movement for a separate Sikh nation on the other.

Gurvinder Singh

Gurvinder Singh studied filmmaking at the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, graduating in 2001. He travelled extensively through Punjab between 2002 and 2006, documenting folk itinerants, folk ballads and oral narratives. In 2005 he was invited by avant-garde Indian filmmaker Mani Kaul to be his teaching assistant for a month long master class at FTII, which led to a close association with the filmmaker who became his mentor. He directed his first fiction feature in Punjabi, Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan (Alms for the Blind Horse) in 2011. The film premiered in ‘Orizzonti’ competition at the Venice film festival and screened at various festivals including Rotterdam, Busan, London, Munich. It won the ‘Special Jury Award’ at Abu Dhabi Film Festival, and the ‘Best Film’at the International Film Festival of India, Goa in 2012. It also won three National Awards in India, including ‘Best Direction’ and ‘Best Cinematography’.

Credits

Director: Gurvinder Singh
Producer: Kartikeya Narayan Singh
Cinematographer: Satya Rai Nagpaul
Screenwriter: Gurvinder Singh
Editor: Bhupesh Micky Sharma
Sound: Susmit Bob Nath
Music: Marc Marder
Production Company: The Film Cafe
Cast: Suvinder Vikky, Rajbir Kaur, Gurpreet Kaur Bhangu, Kanwaljit Singh, Harnek Aulakh

Festival Appearances & Awards

Cannes Film Festival 2015
Munich FilmFest 2015
Silk Road Film Festival, China 2015
Rio De Janeiro Film Festival, 2015
Ghent Film Festival, Belgium 2015