Jialing Zhang’s documentary follows a journalist and two families fighting for rights while dealing with invasive surveillance tactics from Chinese authorities.
Partway through the documentary “Total Trust,” the Chinese journalist Sophia Xueqin Huang diagnoses the readiness of Chinese civilians to comply with expanding surveillance measures. “It’s just like the story of the boiling frog,” she says; the ceding of small privacies gives way to the surrender of larger freedoms until — before you know it — every facet of life is monitored and controlled.
“Total Trust,” directed by the Chinese filmmaker Jialing Zhang (“One Child Nation”), offers a persuasive picture of this Big Brother system in action. Filmed largely during the pandemic, the film tracks three stories of people policed by the Chinese government: Huang, who came under scrutiny by authorities for her coverage of the #MeToo movement; and the families of two lawyers, Chang Weiping and Wang Quanzhang, who were imprisoned after taking on human rights cases. In a climactic scene, Chang’s wife and son travel to attend his trial; they are held for hours at a highway checkpoint, supposedly as a Covid precaution, until the end of the hearing.
These accounts cut off rather abruptly; ending titles brief us on where the subjects are now, including the troubling update that Huang was arrested and detained in China despite plans to study in the United Kingdom. That the film fails to track this turn of events feels like a missed opportunity, and reminds us that “Total Trust” is not a chronicle of how circumstances can go from a simmer to a boil, but rather a moment’s temperature check.
Total Trust
Not rated. In Mandarin and English, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes. In theaters.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
