An Unfinished Film

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An Unfinished Film

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1h 45m

Drama

Documentary

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76%

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21 Reviews

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Fewer than 50 Ratings

In January 2020, director Xiaorui reunites his cast and crew to complete a film that was abandoned during production ten years earlier. However, the team is suddenly placed into lockdown together during the onset of COVID-19. Confronted with the challenges of the pandemic, Xiaorui and his crew are forced to determine how to move forward in a rapidly changing world. From acclaimed director Lou Ye (Suzhou River, Summer Palace), An Unfinished Film is "an utterly unique and very important movie about Covid, the crisis that affected all of us," (The Guardian). Combining fiction and documentary footage together, Lou Ye both commemorates those lost to the virus and creates "one of the most thoughtful, truthful and tactful depictions of the pandemic ever put to screen." (The Wrap).

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Richard Brody

The New Yorker

The vertiginous condensing of fiction and nonfiction, of past and present, has a radically destabilizing effect that’s inseparable from the audacity of Lou’s political vision.

Mar 15, 2025

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Alissa Wilkinson

New York Times

Life gets in the way of art all the time, and art can be made out of life. What matters, the movie suggests, is hanging onto one another for dear life.

Mar 13, 2025

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Kyle Turner

Slant Magazine

If the frames of Lou’s previous work suggested that reality was something that could be unlocked and unfurled, An Unfinished Film’s presentation of reality as it basically was unfortunately gives the filmmaker, and the audience, little to discover.

Rated: 2.5/4

Mar 9, 2025

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Lee Jutton

Film Inquiry

I’m not sure how many people are ready to relive the memories stirred up by An Unfinished Film, but the film’s creative and sensitive approach to depicting life during the COVID-19 pandemic deserves to be seen.

Mar 21, 2025

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Derek Chen

Spectrum Culture

Shies away from interrogating the unique circumstances that the Chinese people found themselves in during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’d be a herculean task to construct an objective history that captures all the dynamics of this unprecedented time.

Mar 19, 2025

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Mark Dujsik

Mark Reviews Movies

[T]he story becomes one of stretches of boredom and repetition.

Rated: 2.5/4

Mar 14, 2025

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Ye Lou

Director

Hao Qin

Jiang Cheng

Xiaorui Mao

Director Xiaorui

Xi Qi

Sang Qi

Xuan Huang

Ye Xiao

Ming Liang

Ah-Jian

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Synopsis

In January 2020, director Xiaorui reunites his cast and crew to complete a film that was abandoned during production ten years earlier. However, the team is suddenly placed into lockdown together during the onset of COVID-19. Confronted with the challenges of the pandemic, Xiaorui and his crew are forced to determine how to move forward in a rapidly changing world. From acclaimed director Lou Ye (Suzhou River, Summer Palace), An Unfinished Film is "an utterly unique and very important movie about Covid, the crisis that affected all of us," (The Guardian). Combining fiction and documentary footage together, Lou Ye both commemorates those lost to the virus and creates "one of the most thoughtful, truthful and tactful depictions of the pandemic ever put to screen." (The Wrap).

Director: Ye Lou
Producer: Philippe Bober, Yingli Ma, Ma Yingli
Screenwriter: Ye Lou, Yingli Ma, Ma Yingli
Distributor: Film Movement
Production Co: Yingfilms, Essential Filmproduktion
Genre: Drama, Documentary
Original Language: Chinese
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 14, 2025, Limited
Box Office (Gross USA): $17.6K
Runtime: 1h 45m

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