Terror of virus laid bare

DOCUMENTARY: TALES OF HEROES, BRAVERY, TRAGEDY IN CHINA’S WUHAN EPICENTRE

Intimate footage of doctors, patients grappling with new reality.

In February, when few people were aware of a distant and oddly named phenomenon called coronavirus, two Chinese film-makers 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 infected loved ones.

Now, those images have been edited together by New Yorkbased director Hao Wu.

Premiering at the Toronto film festival on Monday, 76 Days is named for the duration of the central Chinese city’s draconian lockdown. Shot in a claustrophobic, cinema verite style – without voiceover or interviews – the film relies on the intimacy of the footage of doctors and patients grappling with a terrifying new reality.

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.

“It was a horrible, horrible shooting experience for them,” Wu said. A few times film-maker Weixi Chen wanted to throw up inside his goggles, but he couldn’t because 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.

The film eschews politics and blame to focus on personal stories of tragedy and bravery, hope and despair, which repeated around the world after emerging in China.