Qin Hao, Mao Xiaorui, Qi Xi
Chinese writer-director Lou Ye (Summer Palace, Mystery, Blind Massage) recalls the COVID lockdown via a hybrid of documentary, web videos, and fragments from his past films, spinning a powerful docufiction out of a nation’s collective trauma.
In 2019, filmmaker Mao Xiaorui and his team discover fascinating old footage from a project abandoned 10 years earlier. This unfinished work (reminiscent of Ye’s acclaimed Spring Fever) brings back nostalgic images of the past. Hoping to realise a project dear to him, Xiaorui reunites his original crew to complete it. But their efforts are disrupted by the onset of COVID-19 in Wuhan, forcing the group into lockdown.
Blending a personal narrative and a look at the broader societal impact of the pandemic, An Unfinished Film is a study of the impact of COVID in the country in which it first emerged. Ye captures the fear and frustration of confinement and the struggle to maintain creativity amid chaos in a profound exploration of unfinished projects and the feeling of life in suspension imposed by the pandemic.
