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Still from Shifting The Gaze: Panjab Noir

DIFF Conversations

Shifting The Gaze: Panjab Noir

Anmol Sidhu, Gurvinder Singh, Mauli Singh, Shashank Walia with Monica Gyamlani

Screening at DIFF 2026

Sun1 to Sunday 1 Nov · House of Peace and Dialogue
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Runtime
90 min

Synopsis

For decades, since the Green Revolution, the image of the Panjab region, courtesy commercial Hindi cinema, has been one of flowering fields and rainbow riots, stereotypes that were easier to dig into than dismantle, complicate, and question. Some filmmakers, though, have been questioning this easy narrative, probing the trauma at the heart region – from partition, to Operation Blue Star, to the drug crisis. With shows like Kohrra and films like Satluj, even the mainstream is responding. Incest, infertility, murder, moral exhaustion, and catatonia plague these films. Panjab Noir, like the noir genre – which is tied to atmosphere rather than narrative – is an attempt to slip under the bleakness of those lands.

Speakers

Anmol Sidhu Anmol SidhuPanelistAnmol Sidhu is a Punjabi film director and screenwriter. His debut feature, Jaggi, received the Uma de Cunha Award for Best Debut at IFFLA.Gurvinder Singh Gurvinder SinghPanelistGurvinder Singh is the director of four Punjabi features: Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan, Chauthi Koot, Adh Chanani Raat and Rehmat. His films have won 4 National Awards and have premiered at Cannes, Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam and Busan.Mauli Singh Mauli SinghPanelistMauli Singh is an actor, producer and film publicist, founder of Loudspeaker Media. Her credits include Adh Chanani Raat, Rammat Gammat, Fire in the Mountains and Birds in the Dark.Shashank Walia Shashank WaliaPanelistShashank Walia is an Indian filmmaker, writer-director and cinematographer. His short film In the Month of Love premiered at Rotterdam in 2020. Birds in the Dark is his debut feature as a writer-director.Monica Gyamlani Monica GyamlaniModeratorMonica Gyamlani works at the intersection of film festivals and production as a film programmer and creative producer. A graduate of National Film and Television School, she curates for Singapore International Film Festival and DIFF.

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