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Switzerland, France · 2018
8h 15m
Director Wang Bing
Starring
Genre Documentary
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In the Gansu Province of northwest China lie the remains of countless prisoners abandoned in the Gobi Desert 60 years ago. Condemned by the Communist Party’s Anti-Rightist campaign of 1957 and entered into "reeducation" camps, those who didn't starve to death tell their harrowing stories of survival in this eye-opening documentary.
The storytelling ends up saying nearly as much as the stories themselves: Not simply capturing and filing memories, the film becomes a portrait of how these survivors have processed their trauma, how they’ve framed the horror of their experiences, and how they’ve coped with survivors’ guilt.
The New York Times by Bilge Ebiri
Despite its intense running time and disturbing subject matter, Dead Souls does not seek a complete accounting. In fact, it’s partly about the inability to convey the full horror of these experiences.
The Hollywood Reporter by Clarence Tsui
Dead Souls is thoroughly focused and tightly structured. And it is an immensely perceptive piece about the history of China and its multitude of discontents.
The Film Stage by Ethan Vestby
This writer has to admit to struggling with the film when it came to the simple area of enjoyment, a push-pull between admiring its rigorous form and being slightly turned off by its lack of notes hit throughout.
Wang Bing’s Dead Souls is a powerfully sobering and clear-eyed investigation that justifies its length through the gravity and presence of its testimony.
Wang’s film is a vital excavation of history in danger of being eroded away.
The anguish expressed and experiences described by the survivors certainly can overlap with each other, and even become repetitive, but it’s ultimately this unification of perspective that gives Dead Souls its authority—and that allows it to become an incisive reappropriation of collectivist solidarity.
Screen International by Sarah Ward
This essential documentary is necessarily, unflinchingly grim; the cinematic equivalent of walking in the survivors’ shoes, and a complex, challenging but crucial viewing experience that burrows its immense sorrows deep into the audience’s bones.
RogerEbert.com by Simon Abrams
A massive, imposing work of non-fiction filmmaking that demands attention despite also being the sort of artwork that doesn't really need any of our attention to be great. Like a monolith, this thing just is. It also just happens to be great, sometimes despite and sometimes because of its mega-sized breadth and scope.
Joy of Data