Film Review: ‘76 Days’ is a Haunting, Visceral Documentary about Human Resilience in the Face of a Pandemic

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Raw and intimate, this documentary captures the struggles of patients and frontline medical professionals battling the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan.

Director: Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, Anonymous

Year: 2020

Country: China

Language: Mandarin

Runtime: 93 minutes

Film Trailer:

A nurse’s father passes away from COVID-19 right in the hospital she works in, but she is unallowed to send him off. She can only weep from a distance as personnel usher the corpse away in an opaque body bag. A grandmother passes away from the virus as well, leaving behind her handphone and jade bangle that can only be returned to her family members after the lockdown eases.

Meanwhile, hospitals in Wuhan are lacking logistical support. Hordes of patients are screaming to be admitted into the hospital. The overworked nurses scream back, begging in hoarse voices for everyone to calm down and understand that they – the nurses, the doctors – are trying their best.

Such is the horrifying and dystopian reality that Hao Wu and his team of directors, Weixi Chen and Anonymous, drop us into right in the beginning of their documentary, 76 Days. As its name suggests, the film documents almost all 76 harrowing days of lockdown in Wuhan, from the beginning of February to 8 April 2020.

Hao Wu and his team split themselves across four hospitals in Wuhan to capture as much ground as possible. Behind every interview, every shot and scene, is a palpable sense of urgency and necessity to capture everything, to pay tribute to the overworked nurses and doctors as much as to mourn for the patients who’ve passed away.

And the result is an utterly gut-wrenching look into the tremendous amount of stress and uncertainty that the patients, nurses, and doctors face as they fight against the pandemic. All of the nurses and doctors, no matter how exhausted and anxious they are, try their very best to save every life. Even when they rest on the hospital’s benches, they sleep with their Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) still fully suited. I can’t fathom how uncomfortable it feels to sleep fully suited.

And because of the PPE, it was near impossible to keep track of the recurring nurses. How do they look beneath their PPE? Is this nurse the same as the one who came on before? Unfortunately, there’s no way to know. We are only given their voices, their names written on their PPE, or their eyes – all of which are more than enough to poignantly communicate their grief, fears, and tiredness.

Especially in the first half of the documentary, the air is perpetually fraught with fear, terror, and anxiety. There is almost an apocalyptic mood as the film takes wide aerial shots of Wuhan’s vast empty streets. The once-bustling city is now zombified. Patients lay bare their vulnerabilities, fears, and worries in front of the camera. Even an elderly ex-fisherman who presents himself as tough, stubborn, and snarky, crumbles into a weeping figure after realising that this nightmare is not going to end so soon. It’s impossible to look away from the screen, because the stakes are too high for everyone.

But make no mistake, this documentary is not meant to be a bleak portrayal of the lockdown. In fact, it celebrates resilience and the indomitable nature of human spirit. Hao Wu and his team made sure that the film isn’t dominated by pessimism through careful, deft editing. Amidst all of the crying and distress are the occasional scenes brightened by laughter and optimism. Once in a while, everyone encourages each other to endure and live on to reunite with their families.

Perhaps the most amazing, even miraculous event in the documentary is how a child is born amidst the chaos. Although the child is separated from her COVID-19 infected parents at first, they eventually reunite by the end of the documentary, with the mother cradling her.

The release of this documentary is incredibly timely. A strange sense of immediacy stirred in me as I watched the film with my mask on, a stark reminder that all that transpired on the screen happened barely a year ago. How much lives have we lost? How can we deal with a grief that’s not only personal, but also national?

But in dwelling on the past, the documentary also directs us to look towards the future. Instances of kindness, generosity, and most importantly, solidarity can help us navigate through complex emotions of grief. All in all, 76 Days is a remarkably visceral and gripping documentary that inspires how beyond times of uncertainty, adversity, and grief, lies hope.

76 Days will see its nationwide release from 22 January onwards, showing in The Projector, EagleWings Cinematics, Cathay Cineplexes, WE Cinemas, Filmgarde Cineplexes, and Golden Village Theatres (Funan, Great World City, Plaza Singapura, Suntec City and Vivocity).