REVIEW: Night Is Not Eternal [2024]

Rating: TV-MA | Runtime: 92 minutes
Release Date: November 19th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: HBO Documentary Films / HBO Max
Director(s): Nanfu Wang
Writer(s): Michael Shade & Nanfu Wang

Once people break free from fear, the system will be powerless.

The message at the back of Nanfu Wang’s latest documentary Night Is Not Eternal comes about an hour in after what feels like a stunning reveal capable of turning everything we’ve seen so far on its head. The reason it doesn’t—and why it ultimately shouldn’t prove stunning at all—is the fact that our species has adapted to the tribalistic tendencies of today’s politics too much. We’ve become overwhelmed with information and global atrocities to the point where our brains have broken. Unable to utilize critical thinking as the noise of propaganda threatens to deafen us, we’ve relented by buying into the sales pitch.

That moment is therefore when Wang juxtaposes the pitch with itself. First, she shows us Xi Jinping and the Chinese media reiterating that their country does still adhere to a socialist doctrine (equality for all) despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary (socialism for you, capitalistic greed for us). Then, she shows Donald Trump and the American media reiterating how the opposition are “socialists” in the dictatorial sense despite the overwhelming evidence of his own dictatorial tendencies (capitalistic poverty for you, socialist handouts for us). Why can that word comfort and slander simultaneously? Because the people wielding it know how to manipulate their audience.

So, what starts as a documentary about Cuban activist Rosa María Payá (daughter of the country’s most well-known Democratic activist, Oswaldo Payá) and the ways in which her radicalization mirrored Wang’s own growing up in communist China, soon reveals itself to be about how easily we can be led astray by language. Because, on the surface, communism was the enemy. Communism was the thing that gave power to dictators. Except, of course, that’s not entirely true. The movements may have started from that place, but the oppression that resulted was a testament to the men leading the movements rather than the doctrine itself.

The real enemy is therefore the authoritarianism that kept those leaders in control. And that’s what’s so scary about America today. By pointing to the danger of the extreme left (erroneously calling moderate Democrats extremists), the extreme right has been able to gain power despite doing exactly what it says the other side would. It becomes a war of rhetoric and exploitation by erasure. Just like Wang explaining how the Chinese government expunged the Tiananmen Square protests from their own history (she only learned about them as an adult after moving to the USA), Republicans have worked to alter truths seen with our own eyes. January 11th? That wasn’t an insurrection. It was a simple “gathering” of protestors.

By following Payá’s work for seven years, Wang has unintentionally documented just how slippery the slope is for “victims of communism” to fall victim to fascism because of the simplicity behind believing communism was synonymous with authoritarianism rather than the fall guy. Suddenly, what seemed like a one-sided document of like-minded souls fighting for freedom becomes a lot more complicated with Wang becoming a sort of neutral party in the middle who’s able to see the destructive tendencies of what Payá is trying to undermine and those of the entities she’s using to help achieve those goals. Sometimes you must get into bed with the enemy because they stand in the way. The trick is remembering that their assistance shouldn’t also make them your friend.

Night Is Not Eternal proves a fascinating look at the troubles and struggles we all face in a flattening world ruled by opportunists of greed rather than stewards of protection. It shows us how freedom fighters can become the enemy and how the enemy can trick its supporters into believing they’re freedom fighters regardless of their destination being their own oppression. Thankfully, despite signs of heading down the wrong path, Payá seems to be playing both sides rather than joining the wrong one. It’s still not great, but it does sometimes need to be done. And it also allows the sense of hope in the title (words spoken by Oswaldo) to remain even as our own future grows bleaker.