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An Unfinished Film

Play trailer 2:00 Poster for An Unfinished Film Released Mar 14 1h 45m Drama Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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79% Tomatometer 28 Reviews Popcornmeter 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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An Unfinished Film

Critics Reviews

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Jake Wilson Sydney Morning Herald ...we’re invited to reflect not only on the film Lou has made, but also the film he hasn’t made and perhaps can’t. Rated: 3.5/5 Apr 30, 2025 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review Anna Hoang Boston Hassle AN UNFINISHED FILM, fleshed out as a docufiction, blends crafted footage and semi-fake footage...to create an even realer reflection of how exactly the pandemic affected the togetherness of filmmaking. Rated: 3/5 Jul 12, 2025 Full Review Katie Smith-Wong Flick Feast Lou breaks the boundaries to deliver a fascinating feature that was born from fiction but built by real life. The result is artistic, divisive but nonetheless necessary. Rated: 3/5 May 18, 2025 Full Review Sarah Vincent Sarah G Vincent Views For people who did not experience the pandemic or do not mind relieving the pandemic, “An Unfinished Film” is the definitive film of that era, which is why viewers who do not normally watch films that they live through should probably avoid this movie. May 5, 2025 Full Review Read all reviews
An Unfinished Film

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Movie Info

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)
$69.1K
Runtime
1h 45m
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