Film

The First Wave - Milan in the Time of Covid-19

A collective documentary capturing Milan's first COVID-19 wave through 57 filmmakers' eyes. Shot in real time as the city locked down, it's a mosaic of intimate moments—empty streets, overwhelmed hospitals, people adapting to isolation. Raw, fragmented, and urgently human. For those who want to understand what March 2020 felt like from the ground, not the news.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a patchwork of many eyes on one city's early lockdown, where the mosaic of short segments builds a shared, unvarnished portrait of ordinary days under restriction.

Skip it if you need a single narrative thread or a clear protagonist, since this is a collage of brief, uneven vignettes that rarely settle into one story.

What it asks of you: An hour and change of quick shifts between voices and places, held in a hushed, sombre register that rarely lifts.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

76 Days2020

Filmed inside Wuhan's COVID ward, it documents the pandemic's invisible frontline with devastating intimacy. A companion piece to The First Wave—same moment, different geography, more harrowing.

But Long stretches of hallway footage and medical machinery. The relentless suffering wears on you. Not a traditional narrative arc.

76 Days poster

In the Earth2021

Ben Wheatley's film about a scientist journey through a pandemic-emptied England. Bleakly funny and genuinely eerie. Captures lockdown paranoia and isolation in a way nothing else does.

But It's part body horror, part experimental art piece. Some will find it pretentious. The violence is unexpected and disturbing.

In the Earth poster

Collective2019

Romanian doc about corruption and institutional failure after a nightclub fire. Watches like a thriller. Alexander Nanau found the same urgent truth in bureaucratic systems that The First Wave finds in crisis response.

But Dense with Romanian names and political machinery. Requires attention and patience. Subtitled, and the pacing is deliberately slow-burn.

Collective poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The First Wave - Milan in the Time of Covid-19

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Night and Fog1956

Both are collage-like witness testimonies to mass suffering. Both refuse to build a comfortable story around tragedy. Both understand that fragmented truth is truer than neat narrative.

Alain Resnais's 32-minute essay on Auschwitz, shot in color among the ruins. Like The First Wave, it's a collective testimony to catastrophe—here, fragments of memory and evidence. Structured as interrupted fragments, refusing coherent narrative.

But Deliberately difficult. No closure. Asks viewers to sit with horror without resolution. Some find the formal experimentalism makes atrocity feel distant.

Night and Fog poster
More like this (7)

The Irishman2019

Scorsese's three-and-a-half-hour meditation on aging, regret, and time slipping away. Not about COVID, but captures the same sense of mortality that pandemic docs preserve.

But Glacially paced. The de-aging effects are inconsistent. Requires commitment; many will check out before the final hour.

The Irishman poster

All Is Lost2013

Redford alone on a boat for 106 minutes with almost no dialogue. A masterclass in visual storytelling about isolation and human endurance against impossible odds.

But Genuinely quiet and repetitive. No plot twists or character development. Some will find it boring rather than meditative.

All Is Lost poster

Come and See1985

Soviet war film that documents human suffering with unflinching power. Like The First Wave, it's a historical document of ordinary people in extraordinary catastrophe.

But Brutal depiction of violence and trauma. The famous ending is genuinely disturbing. Not entertainment; more like bearing witness to atrocity.

Come and See poster

Nocturnal Animals2016

Tom Ford's film about isolation, rage, and disconnection. Creates the same claustrophobic atmosphere that permeates pandemic testimonies.

But Deliberately artificial and cold. The nested narratives confuse some viewers. More style than substance for many.

Nocturnal Animals poster

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days2007

Cristian Mungiu's Romanian film about two women navigating a dangerous situation. Shares The First Wave's commitment to unglamorous, handheld reality. Urgent and human.

But Long, static shots with minimal dialogue. Ambiguous and morally complex. No catharsis or comfort offered.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days poster

Leviathan2013

Documentary about Russian fishing industry and state corruption. Uses montage and natural sound the way The First Wave does—letting reality speak for itself without narration.

But Extremely bleak and obscure. Extended sequences of fish processing and bureaucratic indifference. For patient viewers only.

Leviathan poster

Sans Soleil1983

Both reject conventional documentary structure. Both layer voices and visions to explore a historical moment. Both understand that poetry and rigor aren't opposites.

Chris Marker's essay-film about memory, time, and distance across Japan, Guinea-Bissau, and Iceland. Fragmented, poetic, meditative. Uses newsreel, travelogue, and testimony as The First Wave uses multiple filmmakers—building truth from collision of perspectives.

But Oblique and abstract. No plot. Demands active interpretation. The philosophical digression exhausts people seeking concrete documentary.

Sans Soleil poster

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76 Days