76 Days

An erratic yet frequently captivating documentary, 76 Days follows medical staff and patients alike as they battle the COVID-19 pandemic during its early days in Wuhan. (The title refers to the length of the city’s lockdown.) Filmmakers Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, and Anonymous deliver an up-close-and-personal, fly-on-the-wall endeavor that certainly doesn’t shy away from exposing the grim realities of the situation, as the movie contains several heartbreaking sequences detailing the virus’ impact on a myriad of different folks. (There is, for example, a moving interlude early on in which a woman begs to see her father one last time.) The compelling atmosphere is heightened by the ongoing emphasis on a handful of recurring figures, including a compassionate nurse straining to make a human connection with her patients and a combative older man desperate to leave the sealed-off ward. And although the picture admittedly does suffer from a few lulls over the course of its 93 minutes, 76 Days does, by and large, come off as a powerful snapshot of a global, once-in-a-lifetime event.

*** out of ****