TORONTO – Anup Singh’s Punjabi film ‘Qissa’ won the NETPAC Award for World or International Asian Film Premiere at the 38th Toronto International Film Festival that concluded recently.
Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema awarded the film, starring Irrfan Khan, Tisca Chopra, Tillotama Shome and Rasika Duggal, for brilliantly addressing the topic of “identity and displacement”.
The NETPAC jury included Jay Jeon (Korea), Intishal Al Timimi (Abu Dhabi) and Freddie Wong (Hong Kong).
“The NETPAC Award for the best Asian film at festival 2013
goes to ‘Qissa’, directed by Anup Singh, for its sensitive portrayal of the issues of identity and displacement that affect people not only in India, but in all parts of the world and for brilliance of cinematic craft and the choice of metaphor that has been employed to tell a moving story that is bound to provoke thoughts, spark debate and give its viewers an intense experience,” the jury said.
‘Qissa’ is an Indo-European venture, a co-production between India/Germany/The Netherlands/France and is represented by sales agent The Match Factory.
Its co-producers are NFDC India, Heimatfilm (Germany), Augustus Film (Netherlands/Dutch), and Cine-sud Promotion (France).
Set in the post-Partition era, the film revolves around a Sikh, Umber Singh, attempting to forge a new life for his family while keeping their true identities a secret from their community.
