76 Days

Raw and intimate, this documentary captures the struggles of patients and frontline medical professionals battling the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan. The opening sequences feel like a genre movie — science-fiction, zombie horror, apocalyptic thriller. We watch hospital workers, encased in PPE so that we only see their eyes behind foggy goggles, as they race from one patient to another. At the hospital doors, a desperate crowd is clamouring for entry. The overwhelmed workers can only admit a few people at a time. For all the fantastical elements, this is the reality of 2020. The filmmakers of 76 Days capture an invaluable record of life inside Wuhan, China, ground zero for the outbreak of COVID-19. On January 23, the city of 11 million people went into a lockdown that lasted 76 days. This film concentrates mainly on medical workers and patients to give a pulse-racing account of what it was like to survive.[...]
(Thom Powers)