In January 2020 Xiaorui, a film director, decides to resume shooting a film after 10 years, insisting the lead actor and some of the crew to continue. However, in the final stages of work, the hotel where they are staying is closed under quarantine due to the arrival of covid-19. Lou Ye, a flagship member of the so-called sixth generation, premiered his most visceral work at the Cannes Film Festival's Special Screenings. Starring Qin Hao, a regular face in his cinema, the film attempts to encapsulate the collective uncertainty of the strange initial moments of the pandemic. An atypical ode to cinema, which, through the use of archive footage (newsreels, home videos, etc.) and fragments shot with smartphones and low-quality cameras, takes a poetic look back at the sense of saturation and misinformation received in those early days, when it seemed that nothing would ever be the same again.
Lou Ye
He was born in Shanghai in 1965, studied animation at the Shanghai School of Fine Arts and then filmmaking at the Beijing Film Academy. His debut film, ‘Weekend Lover’ (1994), was banned for two years in China. He attracted international acclaim with his second feature, ‘Suzhou River’ (2000), which won the Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. His next three films —‘Purple Butterfly’ (2003), ‘Summer Palace’ (2006), and ‘Spring Fever’ (2009)— were all selected in Competition at Cannes, as well as ‘Mistery’ (2012). His Paris-set film ‘Love and Bruises’ (2011) premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, where he cameback in 2019 with ‘Saturday Fiction’. ‘Blind Massage’ (2014) premiered in Competition in Berlin and won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution, and ‘The Shadow Play’ (2018) premiered at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival. ‘An Unfinished Film’ (2024) had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
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