After making their foray into distribution with Pawan Kumar’s cult Kannada film, U-Turn, Drishyam Films will be releasing Gurvinder Singh’s much-acclaimed second Punjabi feature, Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Direction), which is slated for Pan-India theatrical release on August 5. The film will release in over 50 screens in Punjab and nearly 30 screens in major cities across India with English subtitles. Drishyam Films will be distributing the film across India, outside the Punjab region.

Chauthi Koot is the first Punjabi film to have its world premiere at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival 2015 where it was screened in the ‘Un Certain Regard’ section and got a standing ovation. Set during the Sikh separatist movement of the 1980s, Chauthi Koot is adapted from two stories written by Waryam Singh Sandhu called ‘Chauthi Koot’ and ‘Hun Main Theek Haan’. The film has been shot mostly around Amritsar and Ferozepur in Punjab.

Among other accolades, the film, which was screened in over 13 international and Indian film festivals, won the Best Film Award in the India Gold section at MAMI 2015 and bagged the National Award 2016 for the Best Feature in Punjabi language.

Shiladitya Bora, CEO of Drishyam Films, is upbeat about the film’s theatrical prospects. “Gurvinder Singh is one of India’s most fearless and distinctive voices in film and an auteur in his own right. Chauthi Koot has bagged accolades around the world and is a perfect fit for the kind of cinema that Drishyam Films embodies. We are sure the Indian audiences will appreciate this powerful and gripping tale of our nation in a time of deep flux.”

Gurvinder Singh’s debut film, Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan (Alms for a Blind Horse), about the plight of farmers in Punjab, bagged three National Awards and was the first Punjabi film to be showcased at the Venice Film Festival. Kartikeya Singh’s maiden venture as a producer under his banner, The Film Café, Chauthi Koot is co-produced by Gurvinder Singh, Catherine Dussart of Catherine Dussart Productions (France), and National Film Development Corporation (India).

Synopsis of the film

CHAUTHI KOOT evokes the atmosphere of suspicion, fear and paranoia in Punjab in 1980s. It revolves 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.

Awards

India Gold, Mumbai Film Festival

Best Film, Singapore International Film Festival

Grand Prix, Belgrade Auteur Film Festival

National Award for Best Punjabi Film

Festivals

Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard)

Munich Film Festival

International Film Festival Rotterdam

Rio De Janeiro Film Festival

Ghent Film Festival, Belgium

Singapore International Film Festival

Belgrade Auteur Film Festival

Haifa Film Festival, Israel

Hong Kong Asian Film Festival

Mumbai Film Festival

Pune International Film festival

Silk Road International Film Festival, Fuzhou, China

Asiatica Film Festival, Rome