Blame, which brings the story three scientists that found themselves in the spotlight of the COVID-19 pandemic, had its world premiere at Visions du Réel and is currently showing at the Academy Award-qualifying Doc Edge Film Festival in New Zealand.
Swiss director Christian Frei met world acclaim that earned him an Academy Award nomination with his closeup portrayal of photographer James Nachtewy with his sophomore feature War Photographer (2001). In his latest expository documentary feature he intends (through extended voiceover) to do the same for three vilified scientists associated with Wuhan laboratory, but his attempts produce uncertain conclusions.
Taking on the contentious hot topic of the origins of COVID-19 outbreak, Frei focuses on Chinese virologists Linfa Wang and Zhengli Shi whose careers were built around the research of bats and naturally occurring viruses found in their reservoirs. He promises to show how sensationalist, outrage media can have detrimental consequences on safety of readers and damaging effect on the people who find themselves in the headlines of the 24/7 news cycle.
However, despite his frequent use of dire instrumentals edited over striking photographs taken during the pandemic, Blame delivers on few promises. After a while Wang and Shi become barely more than carboard figures and their research, which was so wilfully misused in order to provide for alarmistic headlines and conspiracy theories, is so weakly interpreted for the viewer that we are forced to accept the director’s voiceover that repeatedly states that there is no link between lab research and the outbreak of the virus that halted the entire world.
Indeed, as viewers, we are made reliant on the director’s voiceover to such an extent that the entire exposé of the Wuhan Lab urges even the most level-minded COVID non-alarmists to give the Wuhan Lab outbreak theory a second thought. This uneasiness is magnified once the director loses focus of the two Chinese scientist and gives disproportionate time to Peter Daszak – a somewhat vilified former president of a non-profit that provided funds for animal-to human transmittable diseases with the Wuhan lab.
The final nail in the coffin of credibility is the introduction of science journalist Jane Qiu whose first relevant statement is: “I feel like I’m participating in propaganda.” This, at a halfway point of a film in which the director often relays what his protagonists intended to say over the video of them speaking, completely dismantles the entire concept of the documentary. And confusingly and worryingly, Qui’s stance is hardly addressed again. The focus on the scientists whose valuable research was vital in managing the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to be crucial in predicting and containing further ones is respectable. Blame in title and execution is meant to refer to how the search for simple answers can lead to assigning blame to those least culpable and the toll it takes on their lives. However, the director – either through self-righteousness or overconfidence – gets lost in the rabbit hole of COVID-19 and its aftermath.
Doc Edge Festival is celebrating 20 years of “Life Unscripted” from 25 June to 13 July 2025 in Auckland. Revisit our on-site coverage of last year’s edition here.
