India
113
69th edition. October 18-26, 2024
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The film 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.
Born in 1973 in India, he worked as a graphic artist in advertising while studying at Delhi University. After that, he followed a postgraduate course in film directing at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune (2011). For several years, he collaborated closely with filmmaker Mani Kaul. Before his feature debut, ‘Alms for a Blind Horse’ (2011), premiered in Orizzonti competition at the Venice Film Festival, he made several documentaries. ‘The Fourth Direction’ (2015) was screened at Un Certain Regard at Cannes and his film ‘Bitter Chestnut’ (2019) premiered at the Mumbai Film Festival.
