Hull Independent Cinema presents
An Unfinished Film (12A)
Director Xiaorui convinces his cast and crew to resume the shooting of a film halted ten years earlier. In January 2020, with the shoot almost complete, rumours regarding an illness begin to circulate. A hairdresser from Wuhan is sent home, while the crew follows the news on their phones.
The director has to decide whether to halt the filming once again. Some of the crew and actors manage to leave before the hotel is locked down by security guards and everyone left on set is confined to their hotel rooms. As all communication is reduced to phone screens, Wuhan is locked down. The crew continues to communicate via video calls, whilst the quarantined main actor Jiang Cheng struggles to
support his wife who is now locked-down with their month-old baby in Beijing.
This screening is part of Mint on Tour, a women-led Chinese cinema touring programme presented by the MINT Chinese Film Festival and funded by Film Hub North, bringing the best of Chinese film and women’s cinema from Asia across Northern England this Autumn.
Awards & Festivals
Official Selection: Cannes Film Festival, Toronto Intl Film Festival, Rotterdam Intl Film Festival, Golden Horse Film Festival
"Out of agony and chaos, Chinese film-maker Lou Ye has created something mysterious, moving and even profound – a kind of multilayered docu-realist film, evidently inspired by a real-life situation in film production... The director comes to feel that to leave the film unfinished has a new kind of rigour and integrity – a solidarity with the truncation that they have all lived through. This is an utterly unique and very important movie about Covid, the crisis that affected all of us." - The Guardian
"It is one of the most thoughtful, truthful and tactful depictions of the pandemic ever put to screen, eschewing easy categorization as it fully captures the event from ground level." - TheWrap
"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." - The New Yorker
Thu 02 October
VenueGodber Studio, Hull Truck Theatre
Tickets£5
£4 HIC MembersPriority Booking
Director Xiaorui convinces his cast and crew to resume the shooting of a film halted ten years earlier. In January 2020, with the shoot almost complete, rumours regarding an illness begin to circulate. A hairdresser from Wuhan is sent home, while the crew follows the news on their phones.
The director has to decide whether to halt the filming once again. Some of the crew and actors manage to leave before the hotel is locked down by security guards and everyone left on set is confined to their hotel rooms. As all communication is reduced to phone screens, Wuhan is locked down. The crew continues to communicate via video calls, whilst the quarantined main actor Jiang Cheng struggles to
support his wife who is now locked-down with their month-old baby in Beijing.
This screening is part of Mint on Tour, a women-led Chinese cinema touring programme presented by the MINT Chinese Film Festival and funded by Film Hub North, bringing the best of Chinese film and women’s cinema from Asia across Northern England this Autumn.
Awards & Festivals
Official Selection: Cannes Film Festival, Toronto Intl Film Festival, Rotterdam Intl Film Festival, Golden Horse Film Festival
"Out of agony and chaos, Chinese film-maker Lou Ye has created something mysterious, moving and even profound – a kind of multilayered docu-realist film, evidently inspired by a real-life situation in film production... The director comes to feel that to leave the film unfinished has a new kind of rigour and integrity – a solidarity with the truncation that they have all lived through. This is an utterly unique and very important movie about Covid, the crisis that affected all of us." - The Guardian
"It is one of the most thoughtful, truthful and tactful depictions of the pandemic ever put to screen, eschewing easy categorization as it fully captures the event from ground level." - TheWrap
"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." - The New Yorker
Event Details
Age Rating: 12A (BBFC)
Running Time: 1 hour 45 mins
Language: Mandarin with English subtitles
Genre: Docufiction
Content Warnings: moderate threat, violence, upsetting scenes, sex reference, strong language, flashing images
This film screening includes descriptive captions, intended for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. They are also known as HOH (Hard of Hearing) subtitles or SDH (Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing).