The Cinematheque

Vancouver Premiere

“Mysterious, moving, and even profound … An utterly unique and very important movie about COVID, the crisis that affected all of us.”

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

The latest feature from Lou Ye is a poignant time capsule of China’s first surge of COVID-19, rendered in a sly, evasive formal approach befitting the surreality of the lived-through experience. It commences in 2019 with director Xiaorui (Lou stand-in Mao Xiaorui) reuniting with his team to resurrect an abandoned project from ten years earlier. His lead actor Jiang Cheng (Qin Hao), now an in-demand star, reluctantly agrees to return, interrupting a period of downtime intended to be spent with his wife and newborn child. That separation becomes terrifyingly indefinite when a virus emerges in nearby Wuhan and lockdown measures hastily follow—with Xiaorui’s cast and crew suddenly stranded in quarantined hotel rooms. Capturing the anxiety and isolation but also shared humanity of the moment, Lou’s fictional reenactment presents as hyper-realistic thanks to a shooting style that, up until a pivotal point in the film, convincingly frames the footage as documentary in nature.

Best Narrative Feature, Best Director
Taipei Golden Horse Awards 2024

“A haunting but ultimately life-affirming chronicle of the early days of lockdown … Few films have so skillfully captured the way COVID caused such traumatic temporal disruptions.”

Siddhant Adlakh, Variety

“Impressive [and] impressionistic … Limber and thought-provoking … An absorbing portrait of an unfinished era.”

Lee Marshall, Screen International