Cannes, May 16: The most horrifying scene in Gurvinder Singh's Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Direction) occurs when Tommy, a pet dog, is bludgeoned to death with a spade by his owner Joginder who actually adores the animal.

Joginder is an ordinary farmer with an ordinary family living in an ordinary village in Punjab at the height of the Khalistan troubles in 1984.

But he is forced to undertake this extreme step by the militants who don't want the dog to provide a warning of their stealthy movements at night.

This is the case of the dog that did bark in the night, to turn things round from the Sherlock Holmes story, Silver Blaze - only the militants wanted him to remain silent.

The dilemma for poor Joginder is that while he is threatened by the gun-toting militants at night, his home is searched by an army patrol during the day - and the soldiers are none too fussy about how the job is done.

What is remarkable is that although Chauthi Koot is full of menace and seeks to tell the story of what happened in Punjab in the 1980s through Joginder's family, there is no other act of violence in the whole film other than that inflicted on Tommy.

"This is not a criticism but a film like Gangs of Wasseypur uses this 'in your face' violence - for me that kind of violence does not work: like Hitchcock used to say the fear has to be in the mind," observed Gurvinder.

Judging by the reaction when Chauthi Koot received its world premiere in Salle Debussy in Cannes yesterday in a category known as Un Certain Regard, its screening marks the arrival of a very promising director.

The Telegraph talked at length today to Gurvinder but it was just as enlightening listening to the questions posed by a journalist from Hong Kong and another from Paris and his answers as he tried to explain how India worked or, rather, did not.

The film, which has a budget of Rs 5.5 crore - 100,000 euros were given by the French - is a co-production with France where it will receive a general release. It will also be released in the US, Canada and the UK.

The journalists could hardly believe it when Gurvinder told them that the country where Chauthi Koot would probably cause the least excitement would be India.

"May be a place like Calcutta will be open to releasing a film like this," mused Gurvinder.

Ordinary folk would not want to see such a film "because their day to day lives are so much of a struggle they don't want to see the same struggle on the screen. They want an escape from their struggle - their escape comes through film stars, through fancy locations, through Switzerland, Australia - they would be happier to see a film shot here with the Mediterranean sea," said Gurvinder, sitting on the Croisette in Cannes.

"The Indian journalists coming to Cannes unfortunately discovered Cannes through film stars - yesterday they were telling me there were photographs of the Indian stars on the red carpet," he said. "But (there was) no mention of my film. I am showing a film here and the Indian media are showing film stars who are endorsing brands on the red carpet."

Gurvinder was born in Delhi in 1973 into a Sikh family. After school and college in Delhi, he attended film school in Pune.

"I remember the day Indira Gandhi was assassinated," he went on. "I was in the bus going back home and one of my teachers said: 'These Sikhs need to be taught a lesson.' "

While the massacre of Sikhs continued in Delhi, a Hindu neighbour hid Gurvinder's parents and his brother from rampaging mobs.

Gurvinder got his Himalayan sheep dog as a six-month puppy. The breed, usually looked after by nomadic Gujjars, is known to be ferocious. After a year's training, filming began when the dog, who was named Tommy by Gurvinder, was 15 months old.

Gurvinder laughed as he said: "He would not listen to any commands even after having been trained for a year. If we told him to bark for a shot he would not bark - we decided we would have to adapt to the dog. When he is beaten (to death), it is off screen."

Gurvinder gave an assurance that "the dog alive and well and living in Chandigarh with his trainer. So in the credits you see Tommy as Tommy".