In 2019, a film crew unbox an old computer containing footage of a film they abandoned a decade ago. They decide to resume the project, but COVID-19 hits during filming. The whole crew is suddenly stuck in a hotel, the film once again unfinished again. Making the best of it, the team finish the film as a mockumentary—one that now cannot be watched legally in mainland China.
★★★★★
Directed by Lou Ye, praised as the ‘master of banned movies’ in mainland China, An Unfinished Film is a mockumentary about the 76-day COVID lockdown in Wuhan in 2020. Wuhan, the epicenter of the pandemic where the first case was identified, saw the toughest lockdown measures in the world, with officials stationed outside each building prohibiting people from leaving or entering their homes. True and false information flooded social media, with both discredited by the government as conspiracies. The agony, panic, and outcry of all those impacted is concentrated in the tiny hotel room of each crew member, unexpectedly trapped during filming. Like anyone else in Wuhan, they cannot leave the room and share their fear with each other over video calls.
The line between truth and fiction almost disappears in the film. Most shots are executed using handheld cameras, the director telling his fellow crew members to record everything in case it leads to an “interesting story”. At other times, the crew are clearly being recorded by a cameraman—despite only one person being allowed in each room. They do not remake an old film in reality, but the lockdown policies have actually happened.
The director of An Unfinished Film raises a key question using this mockumentary format: what was ‘truth’ at this crazy time? Did it exist at all? Many scenes of the movie are made up of smartphone screen recordings of people calling each other and searching for news online. One of the most remarkable scenes is when the crew members celebrate Chinese New Year together. They start the chat by worriedly asking if anyone has symptoms, then playfully complain about the disgusting meal provided to them and wildly dance with their filming equipment, each in their own room but digitally ‘together’. At one point they leave their rooms and party together in the corridor, but the happiness is immediately killed by security guards beating them and forcing them back inside. It’s chaotically tense, the screen recording low-resolution and the audio fragmented.
The celebration scenes are cross-edited with Douyin (TikTok in China) videos of people dancing with doctors and nurses in quarantine camps. With the background music of a loving pandemic song called ‘Thank You’, the videos look heart-warming. However, we know that the unnecessarily inhumane lockdown policies are causing significant mental and physical suffering, and nobody knows whether these videos and music are just propaganda.
Just like those brief, context-less videos, the emotions of the crew are short lived. Everyone is scared, but limited in how they can show it—after all, the only way they can express themselves is in the virtual world. They know they have to stay positive, and try to maintain that through their connections with one another, but their happiness is suppressed by those in power. No expression of the true self or real emotions is allowed. It’s a powerful, satirical piece criticising the Chinese government’s COVID control and paying homage to the nation’s collective pain.
Sadly, what happened to An Unfinished Film in reality is crazier than the film itself. Although it has been recognised at numerous international film festivals, it is banned in China for political reasons. Chinese netizens who managed to watch the film abroad or with VPN can only discuss it online under the title of A Film Unfinished—the title of a 2010 German documentary re-examining the making of an incomplete 1942 Nazi German propaganda film.
This is not the first political censorship Lou faced; at least five of his films have been banned by the Chinese government. After he made Summer Palace (2006), a love story in the backdrop of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, he was banned from filming for five years. During those five years, he secretly shot Spring Fever (2009), the footage for which stands in for the titular unfinished film in this latest release.
The mockumentary starts with a censored film and ends with another unfinished production. The ‘unifinished’ not only carries a literal meaning, but also conveys a sense of uncertainty towards the future of the Chinese film industry. Will Lou ever be able to work without restrictions one day? Chinese society has seemingly been freed from COVID policies, but the legacy of digital surveillance tools and people’s trauma remains. Will the COVID era of paralysing government control ever end?
The Verdict
As Lou said in an interview, An Unfinished Film is “a free film shot in unfree times”. It is a brave, powerful, and artistic film assessing the socio-political circumstances in China during COVID-19. It also invites global audiences to revisit this world’s collective trauma and appreciate the satirical power of mockumentary.
Words by Angel Sun
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