76 Days

2020 Directed by Hao Wu, Weixi Chen

Raw and intimate, this documentary captures the struggles of patients and frontline medical professionals battling the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan.

93 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by davidehrlich ★★★½

A medical worker in a hazmat suit wails in pain as her father’s body is wheeled towards the morgue; her colleagues at the exhausted hospital plead with her to “control herself” because they desperately need her to keep working. A door handle jiggles down the hallway as a horde of desperate people try to force their way inside. A plastic box labeled “ID cards and phones of the dead” rattles with ghosts that have yet to depart. A woman cries as she’s prepared for a C-section, begging the hospital staff to let her husband come and sit by her side, but the COVID threat makes it impossible to honor such a request. “Don’t worry,” one of the nurses offers. “So…
Review by Lucy ★★★½ 3

AFI 2020: film #4
“let’s not panic, ok?”
perhaps too potent a viewing in 2020, but expertly made and often so emotional. the bare essence of this is people taking care of people, and that sole theme makes this feel almost comforting despite all the trauma
Review by Paul Elliott ★★★★ 3

76 Days is a heartbreaking and poignant visual document written, co-directed and edited by Hao Wu that portrays the initial days of the COVID-19 outbreak. Told from the corridors and emergency rooms of several overrun hospitals, it provides a penetrating exposé that apprehends both the struggles of frontline medical professionals and the increasing incapacity of victims that gradually gave shape to the pandemic's severity; first detected in Wuhan, China.
Observing the courageous medical staff struggling to make sense of the unrelenting virus creates a tragic portrait as they jump through hoops in caring for the patients flooding into the hospitals, causing critical bed shortages. Of course, it doesn't elaborate on the background of the virus; hopefully, that information will emerge…
Review by Cate Young ★★★★½

What struck me most about this film was the contrast between Chinese collectivism and American individualism.
Review by Matt Neglia ★★★½

76 DAYS may be too recent for people to grapple with emotionally but this grave documentary about the lockdown in Wuhan, China during the outbreak of COVID-19 is an important historical document - one that salutes the bravery of medical workers. Brutal, humane and very well shot.
Review by ethan

this will be examined in every single history lesson in twenty years time: an unbelievably important artefact which probably hit way too close to home but god i love documentaries so much.
Review by kevinyang ★★★½ 1

Obviously difficult to watch while we're still in the midst of the pandemic, but certainly a more appropriate and valuable piece of content than the million scripted projects in development that no one will want to see. It's harrowing and inspiring in equal measure, taking us directly to the front lines as we watch doctors and nurses literally in the process of saving lives. It can get repetitive from a filmmaking standpoint, but the opening and closing sequences are particularly shattering, made all the more infuriating knowing America has no respect for the people portrayed in this film.
GRADE: B
Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★½

64/100
A.V. Club review. My kind of fully immersive, present-tense doc, though the fact that it gets less harrowing and intense as it goes along (the opening 10 minutes in particular are tough to watch) makes for an atypical viewing experience.
Review by Michael Clawson ★★★½

Up-close look inside Wuhan hospitals during the city’s seventy-six day lockdown for coronavirus, shot in a vérité fashion without any talking heads or narration. In contrast to the eerily quiet and empty streets, the hospitals are a flurry of activity as overstretched but dedicated healthcare workers hustle to save as many patients as they can. The opening scene had me bracing for a harrowing ninety minutes, but while the suffering on display is devastating, moments of tenderness and compassion offer hope and relief.
Review by 🐱Andrew Chrzanowski🐱 ★★★★ 2

☆"You're a Communist! Don't cry!"☆
Stirring and excruciatingly tense, directors by Hao Wu and Weixi Chen -- and a third filmmaker who chose to remain anonymous -- bring the horrific story of the early days of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China during the unprecedented lockdown of the city in 76 Days. Today, January 23rd, is the one-year anniversary of the start of this event, and to commemorate it the film is available at no cost.
In the brief period of chaos when government control of the media wasn't as strong, as the epidemic began to rage and with little known about its spread, filmmakers found access to some of the hardest hit hospitals in Wuhan and to the patients being taken…
Review by Robby ★★★½

A very interesting documentary that I never want to watch again. Often sad and hard to watch, but these medical workers risked their lives and well-being and did everything they could to help all those patients and that left me with hope. The world is so negative and toxic right now and I needed to be reminded that there's still people out there who care about others and want to help.
Comes recommended from me, but I especially want to recommend this to the idiots out there who still aren't taking COVID seriously. Hopefully this will make you turn on your brain.
Review by Dawson Joyce ★★★★★

An all-too-timely and excruciatingly haunting look at not just the devastating effects of the Coronavirus but also the frontline health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, 76 Days is the very definition of a must-watch, as it's not only an expertly crafted documentary but also one of last year's very best films.

Recent reviews

Review by sarah 🧃 ★★★★

anyone who doesn’t believe in the virus or thinks that ‘this is all a hoax’ needs to watch this movie.
Review by that_broccoli ★★★½

An important documentary in this era. Not much technique but it's understandable. Shots of these faces were beautiful. Humanistic approach.
Review by KnightsofOdessa ★★★

同時代の記録。
Review by Calexico Ramírez ★★★

Lo que para mi es destacable de "76 days" es ver un documental sobre algo que seguimos viviendo referente a la pandemia que por lo menos en México, ya vamos a llegar al año.
También ver como en cada país pegó diferente el virus, aquí en México tenemos una cantidad de muertos impresionante así como un desborde de los hospitales que contrasta con lo que luchan en Wuham.
De los documentos que poco a poco se van generando en este parteaguas de nuestras vidas. Tal vez un poco repetitivo, pero que no ha sido así en el 2020 y lo que llevamos de 2021.
Review by Musanna Ahmed ★★★½

"Your family is not here, so we are your family now." Grimly compelling view from the frontlines. The montage of the doctor calling all the families to tell them the tragic news.
Review by tomstardis ★★★½

76 Days is a documentary that follows the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020. It takes about 30 seconds for the grimness to start and it never lets us with the lack of beds, PPE equipment and a lot of people's patience. The first half of the documentary is very heavy and quite downbeat but as the documentary progresses the film eases up on that downbeat feeling whilst not pretending like things are getting better.
There are several moments which seem like they are out of a zombie apocalypse film such as a shot of a box labelled phones belonging to the dead. Another is a poor old lady having a pill ground into powder cause she…
Review by BarbaEscasa ★★★★

Un poderoso vistazo a un hospital durante el punto más alto y confuso de la pandemia en Wuhan. Frustrante, triste y, a veces, inspirador.
Un verdadero documento de la fuerza del personal y lo triste de toda la situación. Lastima que al final nadie se puso las pilas y prácticamente todos los países terminaron viviendo una versión de este horror. Esperemos termine pronto.
Review by Alisa ★★★★★

As a healthcare worker this hits really close to home.
Review by Alexandra Iciek

Absolutely heartbreaking, whilst also representative of the human capacity to love and care for strangers.
I think there was ultimately a lot the reader didn't see. This should not be a documentary taken as something that reveals the hidden depths of the outbreak in Wuhan. Rather, it goes some way to show the humanity behind every health care worker and paitent.
Review by jamiemclaren ★★★★

Took 76 days for the lads to grip it while a year on Bobby Johnson’s still flapping it the wobbly albino skeff.
Review by Daniel Motta ★★★

Solid documentary. Rightfully shocking and raw. But honestly, I am oversaturated with COVID stuff by now.
I felt like, although it was an intimate look into the horrors of the early days of the pandemic in Wuhan, I really didn’t learn anything new from it. Plus, with all the praise and respect that they deserve, watching first-responders dealing with patients for 90 minutes straight is just exhausting. I guess that’s just a testament to how brutal and heroic their work is.
Review by Bruno Cetira ★★★★½

It’s terrifying watching history happening before our eyes.