The Fourth Direction
(Chauthi Koot)

Gurvinder Singh is from the world of documentary. In The Fourth Direction, he recounts the tragic impasse when, in 1984, Sikh rural communities in the Indian Punjab were caught between the Sikh separatists and the army and police. Set a few months apart, two episodes of this tragic and paranoid historical reality give structure to the narrative. To immerse us in the story, the filmmaker tells us as little as possible, chooses to give no indication as to the context, and none of the characters comment indirectly on the narrated events. Contrary to the usual codes of historical films, Gurvindher Singh chooses to film his world from the inside, shunning all seduction tactics. Nature, voices, gestures, lights and faces become the only truth in this theatre of terror, whose implications we discover scene after scene. JB