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Deep Dive: Dead Souls (2018)

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Dead Souls
Dead Souls is a documentary directed by Wang Bing that captures the testimonies of survivors from hard-labor camps in the Gobi Desert, specifically the Jiabiangou and Mingshui reeducation camps established by China's Communist regime in the late 1950s. The film features interviews with over 120 survivors, providing a comprehensive view of their experiences from 2005 to 2017 across various provinces in China. The film premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and spans 497 minutes, allowing for an in-depth exploration of the personal accounts of those who suffered in the camps. The narrative is structured around these oral memoirs, creating a historical artifact that reflects on the past and its implications for the present.

Why Watch

  • •Meet survivors of China's reeducation camps.
  • •Find out about the Jiabiangou and Mingshui camps.
  • •See a powerful investigation of China's past.

Did You Know

•The film features testimonies from more than 120 survivors.
•Dead Souls was shot over a period of 12 years, from 2005 to 2017.
•It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018.
•The documentary has a runtime of 497 minutes.

Perfect For

Chinese history enthusiastsHuman rights advocatesDocumentary film lovers