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Dead Souls

Play trailer Poster for Dead Souls 2018 8h 26m Documentary History Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 21 Reviews Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
In Gansu Province, northwest China, lie the remains of countless prisoners abandoned in the Gobi Desert sixty years ago. Designated as “ultra-rightists” in the Communist Party’s Anti-Rightist campaign of 1957, they starved to death in the Jiabiangou and Mingshui reeducation camps. The film invites us to meet the survivors of the camps to find out firsthand who these persons were, the hardships they were forced to endure and what became their destiny.
Dead Souls

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Critics Consensus

Dead Souls excavates a government's sins with personal accounts that preserve the past while illuminating the problems of the present.

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Critics Reviews

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Richard Brody The New Yorker 12/20/2018
In addition to being a work of memory that brings the past imaginatively to light, "Dead Souls" is a film of resistance that, in discussing the past, also confronts the present-day activities of the Chinese government. Go to Full Review Tara Brady Irish Times 12/20/2018
4/5
Essential, if sobering work Go to Full Review Simon Abrams RogerEbert.com 12/14/2018
4/4
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. Go to Full Review Mattie Lucas From the Front Row 06/03/2019
3.5/4
Not a film for the faint of heart, but no other film this year felt more vital, immediate, or audacious, earning every minute of its gargantuan runtime. Go to Full Review Joshua Brunsting The CriterionCast 12/14/2018
An incredibly guilt-ridden film, the experience of surviving such a traumatic, world-shattering trauma is squarely on the film's mind, turning Wang Bing's latest film into a harrowing masterpiece. Go to Full Review Read all reviews
Dead Souls

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Cast & Crew

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Bing Wang

Director

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Dead Souls

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Movie Info

Synopsis In Gansu Province, northwest China, lie the remains of countless prisoners abandoned in the Gobi Desert sixty years ago. Designated as “ultra-rightists” in the Communist Party’s Anti-Rightist campaign of 1957, they starved to death in the Jiabiangou and Mingshui reeducation camps. The film invites us to meet the survivors of the camps to find out firsthand who these persons were, the hardships they were forced to endure and what became their destiny.
Director
Bing Wang
Genre
Documentary, History
Runtime
8h 26m