Dead Souls (2018) - Notes

It's fairly difficult to not draw comparisons between Wang Bing's latest mammoth film and the legendary Shoah. Which isn't a criticism - if anything it's meant with the highest degree of a compliment. Like Shoah, Dead Souls crosses the border of cinema and enters the territory of historical artefact - creating an account of a time that is slowly crumbling away into the forgotten realm.

Dead Souls is a close return to the peaks Wang Bing achieved in his debut effort Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks. Filmed from 2005 to 2017 we follow testimonies and accounts from survivors of the anti-rightist campaign and subsequent re-education through labour camps. Hauntingly we also witness survivors pass away as we watch time and era physically, and metaphysically, slowly decay under the transient nature of memory and pain. but also the intentional ignorance, censorship, and avoidance of that era by the current government and leaders. (The latter being heavily overlooked in the documentary and thus being one of my only major criticisms).

Another interesting variable is Wang Bing's filming, we get to witness it bounce between quality - during the early filming of the project we have the typical DV camera quality that's common in his previous work, which is then partnered with a much higher quality HD footage from the past couple of years. This really empathises the stretch of time, we feel the hard work and time that Wang has put into this but also the ever-changing nature of time as we jump around a ten year plus timeline.

The testimonies play their strength in their repetition. It's easy to find the testimonies a little hard to tell apart eventually as the accounts meld into very similar experiences of suffering - but that's exactly what cements the widespread reality of these memories and anecdotes. Instead of numbing and overexposing you they actually help construct the actuality of these events.

Due to be filmed over such a stretch of time, it can be a little inconsistent. There's even a couple of scenes towards the end where Wang Bing is in front of the camera - something rarely seen in his previous work. These inconsistencies are a strength and weakness - the variety of filming methods keeps the piece moving and intriguing (this being one of the biggest similarities to Shoah), but it also creates fragmentation and irregularities as the editing loses the consistency found in West of the Tracks.

Inconsistencies aside, Dead Souls presents some of Wang Bing's strongest work. One sequence that really stands out is right at the start. We meet an elderly couple filmed near the start of the project, we also meet the husbands bedridden older brother who helped him survive the camp who also suffered horrific ordeals. We then cut to the funeral of the older brother only months later as we watch his oldest son grieve. And then we cut to 2016 with only the wife alive aged 97 - we learn that her husband died four years ago at the age of 92. With all her strength she utters the words "It's the end. I want to die as quickly as possible. Dead, I'll suffer less". And that's only the first hour.

I can only hope that Wang Bing gets his wish and this record of history will be known by as many people as possible. And I can only hope that Wang Bing will continue to create work of his magnitude.

"Your pain has woken the sleeping souls of the deceased so that all the hardships endured

be known to as many people as possible"