Qissa continues its dream run to win multiple prestigious awards, this time at the International Film Festival of Queensland, Australia.  Starring brilliant Indian actors like Irrfan Khan, Tisca Chopra and Tillotama Shome, the film won the Best Actor award for Irrfan, Best Actress award for Tillotama, Best Director for Anup Singh and Best Cinematography for Sebastian Edschmid. The India release of the film is scheduled for September 2014.

The film, a four – country international co-production between Heimatfilm (Germany), NFDC (India), Augustus Film (Netherlands), and Cine-Sud Promotion (France) is the first ever under the Indo-Germany treaty on Audio-Visual Co-productions and backed by co-producers from Netherlands and France. Qissa that has been shot in Punjabi has taken the festival circuit by storm across the last one year.

Qissa is currently being screened at the Munich International Film Festival, Germany, in the section – International Independents- Radical innovative international art house; Spotlight – “Movies to Die For.” The film is scheduled to release in the country across twenty screens in seventeen cities including Berlin, Frankfurt, and Stuttgard. It will be showcased in the dubbed version (German) and also in the original Punjabi version with English subtitles in select theatres. Qissa will get its UK premiere with a screening at  the London Film Festival 2014.
 
At the recently held PIFF (Punjabi International Film Festival) – IFSA (International Film of South Asia), Toronto, the biggest South Asian Film Festival in North America, Qissa was the opening film followed by its theatrical premiere in Canada.

Other accolades that the movie has bagged include the NETPAC Jury’s Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, The Dioraphte Award at the 43rd International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Inalco Jury Award for “The beautiful script, the quality of acting and the beauty of the picture” along with a  special mention by an international jury at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema, France. Tillotama won the Best Actress award at the Abu Dhabi International Film Festival 2013.

Anup, who is currently in Geneva with Irrfan said, “I am grateful and humbled that my film about a refugee on this earth, a film in a minority language like Punjabi, can find a home finally within the wondrous community that is world cinema today. We’re celebrating and look forward to celebrating with the Qissa team soon.”

Qissa tells the tale of Umber Singh, a Sikh, who vows to oppose his destiny when he loses all in 1947. He brings up his fourth daughter, Kanwar, as a son, but when he marries Kanwar to Neeli, a girl of lower caste, Umber is forced to face his crime against his child. But still unable to give up his struggle against nature and the past, he condemns himself to becoming a refugee again. This time, though, his exile is an unforgiving eternity. History and folklore come together in this tale set in the aftermath of the Partition of India.