An Unfinished Film

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.

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.