Punjabi movies that were honoured at Cannes before ‘Saade Aale’

The dream of being screened at the Cannes Film Festival remains in the heart of every filmmaker, but only a few get a chance to turn it into reality. This year the movie that lived the dream is ‘Saade Aale’. Based on Kabbadi and encapsulating the essence of Punjab’s culture, the first look of the movie was released at the Cannes Festival. However, before ‘Saade Aale’, there were a couple of other Punjabi movies that went to the film festival and a lot of people are not aware of it. Scroll down to know which Punjabi movies made it to Cannes prior to ‘Saade Aale’:

The 2015 film had two different stories set in a post-Operation Blue Star Punjab in the '80s. It was selected for the ‘Un Certain Regard’ section of the Cannes Festival. Directed by Gurvinder Singh, the movie chronicled the situations that led to unspeakable brutality. It captured the era that was filled with fear and paranoia as the general public was caught between excesses of both Khalistani militants and the Indian government forces fighting them. The cast of the movie included Suvinder Vicky, Rajbir Kaur, Harleen Kaur, Taranjit Singh, Kanwaljit Singh, Harnek Aulakh, Gurpreet Bhangu and Tejpal Singh.

Screened at the 67th Cannes Film Festival, ‘Nooran’ is a 31-minute short film. Based on women empowerment, the movie was inspired by dramatist and short story writer Balwant Gargi’s Rabbo Marasan. ‘Nooran’ was shortlisted from 450 short films that entered the festival in the respective section. Only 120 movies out of 450 were able to make it to Cannes and Navtej Singh’s directorial was the only one representing Punjabi genre. The stellar cast of the movie included Sardar Sohi, Kul Sidhu, Jaswant Jass, Gurinder Makna and Gurbinder Bhatti.

Another movie set in the backdrop of Operation Blue Star Amritsar is ‘Gawachi Pagg’. It’s a story of a boy looking for his lost turban in the Golden Temple. The short film was directed by Navtej Singh Sandhu and had Japtej Singh in the lead. He is the same actor who worked as a child artist in the Bollywood biopic ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’. ‘Gawachi Pagg’ was screened in Short Film Corner in 2017.

The year 2017 had one more entry from the genre of Punjabi industry to the Cannes short film corner, and it was ‘Chamm’. The 35-minute movie was based on the plight and struggles of the Dalit Community. Directed by Rajeev Kumar, the movie had Mahreen Kaleka, Bajinder, Hardip, Raj & Surendar in pivotal roles.

Satinder Sartaaj’s debut movie ‘The Black Prince’ made news for all the right reasons and its trailer being screened at the 70th Cannes film festival was one of them. It is an international historical drama based on the life of Duleep Singh, the last Maharajah of the Sikh Empire and the Punjab area. Directed by Kavi Raz, the movie starred some great jewels of the cinematic world - Shabana Azmi, Jason Flemyng, Amanda Root, Keith Duffy and David Essex.