Covid-19 film documents horror and chaos in Wuhan

LOS ANGELES • Back in February, two Chinese filmmakers strapped on hazmat suits and embedded themselves in Wuhan's overrun hospitals.

There, they captured harrowing footage of terrified citizens hammering on hospital doors, medics collapsing from exhaustion and relatives begging in vain to say goodbye to coronavirus-infected loved ones.

Now, those images have been edited and put together by New York-based director Wu Hao (People's Republic Of Desire, 2018).

Premiering at the Toronto film festival on Monday, 76 Days - named for the duration of the central Chinese city's draconian lockdown - is the first major documentary from the disease's original epicentre to hit theatres.

Wu first contacted the two film-makers, one of whom is anonymous for his own safety, after witnessing China's early lockdown first-hand during a family visit for Chinese New Year.

The footage they sent him revealed how, in the chaos of the disease's early weeks, they were able to get remarkable access - but at considerable personal risk and suffering.

"It was a horrible, horrible shooting experience for them," Wu said. "They were fainting, it was really warm. A few times (film-maker Chen Weixi) wanted to throw up, but he couldn't because once you throw up, once you remove your PPE, you have to get out, you could not come back again."

"It was like shooting in a war zone," he added.

Wu also had a personal motivation for pursuing the project.

His grandfather died of cancer soon after the outbreak, unable to find a hospital bed as resources strained under the weight of Covid-19.

"In the beginning, I was angry with the Chinese government - I really wanted to find out who's at fault, what caused this," said Wu.

But once the pandemic spread to other countries like the United States, the desire to place blame was replaced by a desire to document how "as human beings live through this, how we can share this experience".

It remains unclear whether the movie will ever be shown in China, where news about the pandemic has been tightly controlled since day one.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 16, 2020, with the headline Covid-19 film documents horror and chaos in Wuhan. Subscribe