6.5
Featuring seven stories from seven auteurs from around the world, the film chronicles this unprecedented moment in time, and is a true love letter to the power of cinema and its storytellers.
Mokarameh Saidi Balsini
Tahereh Saidi Balsini
Solmaz Panahi
Jafar Panahi
Igi
Zhou Dongyu
Zhang Yu
Zhang Yanbo
Xiaohao
Qian Youfa
Grandpa
Wang Fengjuan
Grandaunt (voice)
Zhang Guangfa
Smoker
Chen Jian
Zhang Yimiao
Chen Youshuo
Bobby Yay Yay Jones
Yay'Veontay Jones
Bobby Levi Jones
Imani Jones
Alaa Mahajna
Carmen Aristegui
Ghada Oueiss
Mazen Masri
Nihalsing Rathod
Pierre Chanel Affognon
Salvador Camarena
Shalini Gera
Yahya Assiri
Francisca Castillo
Rosa García-Huidobro
Antonio Mendía
Inti Briones
Aissareru Briones Mendía
Catherine Machovsky
Jude Swanberg
Clyde's Brother (voice)
Jenjira Pongpas
Sakda Kaewbuadee
Banlop Lomnoi
Director
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Director
Laura Poitras
Director
Dominga Sotomayor
Director
Malik Vitthal
Director, Writer
Jafar Panahi
Director, Writer
David Lowery
Director, Writer
Anthony Chen
December 29, 2021
8
I read the reviews and poor scores for this film so my expectations were low. But somewhere after the first couple stories, I asked myself the same question as these filmmakers did: "Tell me how you really feel about 2020 in 20 minutes?" I myself would've been at a loss. The question yields another perspective and appreciation for these stories. Even Lowery's it-takes-a-pandemic-to-get-me-to-dig-up-my-dead-brother wasn't bad. Chen's comment on the dramatic pandemic-related increase of domestic violence was spot on. Panahi's biopic of how our elders suffer differently than us was touching. Vitthal's heartwarming personal story just reminds us of the continuing class difference even in how the pandemic affected us. The pièce de résistance was, of course, the duality of Weerasethakul's Buddhist world-view that insects don't give a shit about your pandemic ego, dude. And Poitras? Well, I'm in the business. It's worse, and way more dangerous, than she says.