With films like One Child Nation, I Am Another You, and Hooligan Sparrow, Nanfu Wang was already on her way to becoming legendary. In the Same Breath opens with a New Year’s celebration in Wuhan. Wang was visiting her family in China for the holiday and ended up leaving her son with her mother while going on a work trip. What followed was an extremely stylized, yet personal, take on the Coronavirus pandemic.
Utter chaos occurred in China as eight people were punished for spreading rumors about an “unknown pneumonia”, despite the first case being recorded on December 1, 2019. As the number of cases grew, people infected with COVID-19 couldn’t get treatment because the hospitals were at maximum capacity. Wuhan’s lockdown didn’t even start until January 23, 2020, giving the virus time to spread at a rapid pace.
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Nanfu processes the information in an effective and moving way. She describes her toddler son not being able to get tested despite developing symptoms. She showed Tao Wenbin, a father fighting to see his son, Xing, in the hospital. Tao ignored the doctor’s warnings about wearing protective gear, the doctors did nothing to stop him, and it resulted in harsh consequences.
Nanfu delivers a stunning documentary with tough subject matter: it shows people dying while the agencies put in place to protect them failed miserably. She also draws parallels between China’s initial reaction to COVID and America’s. Both countries also threatened health care workers who were spreading information about the virus.
Taking everything into account, Wang recalls when things felt normal before the chaos. Despite also thinking the virus wasn’t serious at first and realizing her error later, she warns about the possible rise in authoritarianism because of how China responded to the crisis.
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Still, she relates that while 3,000 COVID deaths were reported in Wuhan, the number was probably about ten times that amount. Because of the workers at funeral homes who related they didn’t have space for 30,000 graves and because of the insane line of people waiting to pick up the ashes of their loved ones.
Wang also imagines how everything could’ve happened differently. Her perspective and her honesty make this one of the most important, relevant, and breathtaking documentaries of the year.
