• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Seventh Row

A place to think deeply about movies

  • Archives
    • Browse Articles
    • Review Index
    • Interview Index
  • Podcast
    • Seventh Row Podcast
    • Abortion on Film
    • Creative Nonfiction Podcast
    • Women at Cannes
    • Sundance 2023
    • The Joachim Trier Audio Commentaries
    • 21st Folio
    • Seventh Row on other podcasts
  • Ebooks
    • Mike Leigh
    • Call Me by Your Name
    • Céline Sciamma
    • Kelly Reichardt
    • Joanna Hogg
    • Andrew Haigh
    • Lynne Ramsay
    • Joachim Trier
    • Subjectives realities (Nonfiction film)
    • Documentary Masters
    • Fiction Directors
  • Shop
  • Join Reel Ruminators

Brett Pardy / September 15, 2020

TIFF Review: 76 Days provides a new lens on the pandemic

76 Days is an urgent documentary about coronavirus pandemic that humanizes the people behind the PPE. Keep up to date with our TIFF ’20 coverage.

Still from 76 Days for a review of the film.
TIFF Review: 76 Days provides a new lens on the pandemic.

76 Days is a documentary that will be labelled “timely”, but the film’s strength is that it never stresses its own importance nor is it a didactic call to action. Instead, Hao Wu, Weixi Chan, and the Anonymous co-director know the audience now understands the scope of the pandemic. Rather than go large, they go small, focusing, in verité style, on a small group of people’s efforts to stem the COVID-19 pandemic’s tide. The film is assembled from footage shot between January and April, largely in Wuhan, the first major location of the global pandemic.  

76 Days opens with a crowd banging on the doors to get into the hospital for treatment, which  plays like a siege. But the framing of the pandemic as a horror film is only a hook. 76 Days pivots to a focus on people who shine through their kindness, particularly two main nurses. 

We are introduced to the medical staff already fully geared up in their personal protective equipment (PPE). Only towards the end of the film, do we see their entire faces. This helps to humanize the people behind the PPE because we have to learn who they are through their words and actions, rather than just by appearance. Despite the layers separating them, the medical staff’s ability to communicate kindly and calmly, especially when dealing with patients who are scared or confused, is beautiful to watch. One of the highlights is when the nurses doodle on each other’s suits to personalize them, often writing food they would like to eat once they can travel again. 

Two figures in PPE suits lie down in a hospital corridor, exhausted.
Two workers in PPE in 76 Days.

The film’s strength is in how it juxtaposes the hopeful storylines that developed over the course of filming against the tragic ones. The majority of the patients we get to know live. But the directors avoid making a misleadingly triumphant film. The conclusion of the film is haunting in a different manner than the early crowd scene at the door. A nurse phones the family of a patient who has died, asking them if they would be able to come and pick up the deceased’s phone and jewelry. This is shot with a focus on the items in closeup. But as the scene closes, the camera pulls back to reveal all of the bags of items, indicating the nurse has many emotionally trying calls left to make. 

Even in a media environment saturated with COVID coverage, this documentary is worth seeking out. By not announcing any grand perspective on the pandemic, it provides a new lens on the human effort that goes into mitigating the pandemic.

READ: More coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival >>

In Their Own Words: Documentary Masters Vol. 1

We drop you into the minds of some of today’s most influential documentarians, each with very different approaches, to question whether there’s any “right way” to make documentaries.

Find out more
In Their Own Words: Documentary Masters Vol. 1

Filed Under: Documentary, Essays, Film Festivals, Film Reviews Tagged With: Toronto International Film Festival

« Older Post
TIFF Review: Sweat is one of the first great films about an influencer
Newer Post »
From Monsoon to Shiva Baby, a preview of the 2020 Frameline Festival

Footer

Support Seventh Row

  • Film Adventurer Membership
  • Cinephile Membership
  • Ebooks
  • Donate
  • Merchandise
  • Institutional Subscriptions
  • Workshops & Masterclasses
  • Shop

Connect with Us

  • Podcast
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

Browse

  • Interview Index by Job Title
  • Interview Index by Last Name
  • Seventh Row Podcast
  • Directors We Love
  • Films We Love

Join our newsletter

  • Join our free newsletter
  • Get the premium newsletter (become a member)

Featured Ebooks on Directors

  • Joachim Trier
  • Joanna Hogg
  • Céline Sciamma
  • Kelly Reichardt
  • Lynne Ramsay
  • Mike Leigh
  • Andrew Haigh

© 2025 · Seventh Row

  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Contribute
  • Contact
  • My Account