Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Direction; Punjabi)

(115 min; 2015; dvd; English subtitles)

Director: Gurvinder Singh

 

Multiple award winner including the Un Certain Regard Award, Cannes Film Festival 2015; Golden Gateway of India for Best Film Award, Mumbai Film Festival 2015; Silver Screen Award for Best Asian Feature Film, Singapore International Film Festival 2015; Best Feature Film in Punjabi, National Film Awards 2016; among others

 

Set in Punjab in 1984, Chauthi Kootevokes the atmosphere or mahaul, of suspicion, fear and paranoia of the time. The film is based on the short stories of Waryam Singh Sandhu, and centres on two loosely connected incidents – two Hindu friends trying to catch a train to Amritsar and, some months earlier, a farmer who is told he has to kill the family dog, whose barking threatens to reveal the presence of Sikh militants in the area…