Fourth Direction
Filmfest 2015
OT: CHAUTHI KOOT
France, India 2015
Original version with English subtitles
(Original: Punjabi)
German Premiere
Director: Gurvinder Singh
Section: International Independents
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.
"It was dry and hot for many days... Then one day there was a sudden thunderstorm and it didn't stop raining for a week. The location got flooded and access to it became difficult. But somehow we carried on shooting and used those elements in the film. The thunderstorm sequence is a very important one in the film now. I can't imagine the film now without it."
Gurvinder Singh
Cast: Suvinder Vikky, Rajbir Kaur, Gurpreet Kaur Bhangu, Harleen Kaur, Harnek Aulakh
Credits
Screenplay: Gurvinder Singh, Waryam Singh Sandhu, Jasdeep Singh
Original Material: Waryam Singh Sandhu
Director of Photography: Satya Rai Nagpaul
Film Editor: Bhupesh Micky Sharma
Composer: Marc Marder
Production Designer: Priyanka Grover, Navjit Kaur
Sound: Susmit Bob Nath, Bruno Tarrière
Production Company: The Film Café
Co-Production Company: Catherine Dussart Production, National Film Development Corporation of India Ltd. (NFDC), Handmade Films
World Sales: Elle Driver
Director: Gurvinder Singh
