COVID-era lockdowns may be in the world’s rearview mirror now but—like the virus itself—debates over how to remember the pandemic linger. For example, the CIA announced last month that it now favors the “lab leak” theory of COVID’s origins; this comes amidst a broader revision of “official narratives” in the US around health, COVID, and beyond following Donald Trump’s second inauguration.
It’s quite poetic, then, that famed Chinese director Lou Ye’s latest feature An Unfinished Film is now getting a US theatrical release. Though set and filmed in China, the movie forces audiences to examine the fragile boundaries between truth and fiction, and the sociopolitical implications that arise when such boundaries blur. Lou achieves this by crafting the fictional but “inspired by real events” plot of An Unfinished Film in the form of a documentary, interspersed with excerpts and discards from his other fictional features. What results is a “memory shelter” of COVID in China that, despite being fictional, feels more “authentic” than many of the nonfictional documentaries that exist about the Chinese COVID experience.
Filming in a Film
An Unfinished Film begins in the lead-up to January 2020, with a director named Xiaorui (played by Mao Xiaorui) trying to reunite his past collaborators to complete an unfinished film. Xiaorui is a stand-in for Lou (who never appears on screen himself); the footage that inspires the “unfinished film” comes from Lou’s past movies, most notably 2009’s Spring Fever. The film’s first 20 or so minutes feel like a “making of” documentary featurette that might appear in the extras of some DVD boxset. We see Xiaorui corral together a group of actors and crew—almost all of which are alums of past Lou Ye films —to begin shooting in a hotel.
The story takes a sudden turn when a crew member from Wuhan gets sent home amidst rumors of a mysterious new virus. A state of confusion ensues, as the filmmaking team debate whether to halt production and leave the hotel. While some depart early, most of the team soon find themselves forcibly quarantined in their hotel, gated in by corrugated iron panels and roving patrols of hazmat-suited health officials. The “documentary” turns into a quarantine diary, showing cast and crew living in their rooms and trying to videochat with not just each other but also loved ones far away.
Truth from Fiction
It’s not until An Unfinished Film shows footage of its subjects quarantined individually in hotel rooms, and splices screen captures of their video chats, that one starts to realize that it is a work of fiction made ex post facto, rather than a live account captured in true documentary fashion. Lou’s execution of the documentary style —handheld camerawork, improvisation—is so strong that viewers must constantly ask themselves what is reality versus fiction. The interspersing of social media footage, alongside clips or outtakes from Lou’s past films, makes this task even more challenging.
Yet, the film feels even more “truthful” and “real” than actual nonfiction documentaries about COVID in China, say Nanfu Wang’s In the Same Breath or Ai Weiwei’s Coronation. There is no narrator that breaks the fourth wall, no interview-style shots that imply someone else asking questions behind the camera. There’s only what seems like unadulterated life: couples crying about separation, colleagues dancing together onscreen but physically apart to celebrate new year’s.
Authenticity v. Truth
This essence of authenticity is what makes An Unfinished Film so powerful. Chinese-language discourse about the film has described it as a “memory shelter” of the COVID era, and Sinophone viewers have heaped praise upon the film, with some apparently moved to tears. The film won Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards for Best Narrative Feature and Best Director last year, and won the Audience Choice Award at 2024’s Singapore International Film Festival as well.
However, you won’t find any broad discussion of An Unfinished Film in China itself, perhaps unsurprisingly given it depicts the Chinese COVID response as rather heavy-handed. Posts about the film are “disappeared” on Chinese platforms, and there is no record of the movie on Douban (China’s IMDb/Letterboxd equivalent) either. Despite being a thoroughly Chinese film in topic and cast, An Unfinished Film has no Chinese producers, and is listed as a Singapore-Germany coproduction.
Of course, those familiar with Lou Ye’s work will also know that he is no stronger to government bans; his 2006 movie Summer Palace was censored thanks to depictions of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, while Suzhou River and Weekend Lover also received bans for their subject matter.
But something feels different with An Unfinished Film. Lou’s other works are evocative time-and-place-hopping narratives replete with romance and wistful longings of youth. An Unfinished Film, by contrast, is constrained in time and space, and contains none of the messy love stories or full-frontal nudity one might expect from Lou’s past films.
Instead, as a seeming documentary which reunites his now-middle-aged regular collaborators and reflects upon his past movies, it almost feels like a coda, a requiem even. A decent number of Chinese literati—thanks to different political environments of yesteryear—may still know about Lou Ye’s prior works—but one wonders how many will ever learn about An Unfinished Film, and the narrative of COVID it contains.
It is not only Chinese who can reflect upon An Unfinished Film though. Whether in the US, Europe, or beyond, the fuzziness between truth and fiction, the longing for authenticity over factuality, are perhaps more evident than they have ever been in recent memory. If memory turns into history through art, then history is simply the product of many “unfinished films” like Lou Ye’s.
• • •
An Unfinished Film (Chinese: 一部未完成的电影)—Singapore/Germany. Dialog in Mandarin Chinese. Directed by Lou Ye. First released May 16, 2024 at the Cannes Film Festival. Running time 1hr 46min. Starring Mao Xiaorui, Qin Hao, Qi Xi, Huang Xuan.
An Unfinished Film will have a US theatrical release on March 14, 2025 followed by a streaming release on June 20, 2025.