LAAPFF 2020: 76 Days
LAAPFFIt may not feel like it at the moment, but directors Weixi Chen and Hao Wu's film 76 Days will be a defining moment of cinema in the next decade. It may perhaps be one of the most frightening, haunting, educational and horrifying pieces of cinema ever made.
76 Days, like its namesake, begins with the outbreak of COVID-19 and does not stop until its eradication seventy-six days later, while taking place solely in a Wuhan hospital in the midst of chaos. It may be far too soon for some to bear witness this horror tale, but 76 Days could not come at a better time in the west to truly understand and see the terminal implications of the disease.
With a frantic rise of naysayers and mask defying groups in the west, this is a documentary that, first and foremost, is to document the utterly shocking and brutal fashion in which the health service is pushed. Yet, in the same breath, remains a warning for those who still do not want to or have not seen the terror this disease carries.
At a constant and fast-paced running time, 76 Days is a raw and unflinching documentation. The pace is relentless and pits the viewer into the chaos head first. Choosing not to use any narration or participating factor for a lead voice, 76 Days captures the frantic nature of the situation ten-fold and places the viewer as a vulnerable witness, never afraid to truly showcase the terror and emotional discomfort that this disease brings.
On that note, Weixi Chen and Hao Wu could readily have diverted the horror into something easy sailing but are never deterred from showcasing honesty and devastation in all its sensibility. Moments maintained between the grieving given their families belongings or phone call after phone call of hospital staff having to announce deaths to family members are emotionally destructive, but sights needed to be seen.
Screams and cries of the living mourn the dead and the apocalyptic like overrunning of patients trying to break into the hospice, are just a few pieces of iconography that will never leave the audience's memory. 76 Days is a defining moment in the course of documentary filmmaking and one that will remain in the mind of any viewer who lays eyes on it for the rest of the lives.
