Two of China’s most important directors, Jia Zhangke and Lou Ye, have made the Covid pandemic in their home country the subject of their latest films. In Jia Zhangke’s „Caught By The Tides,“ it acts as a dreary background noise while the difficult, long-standing love story between the two protagonists comes to an end – it is certainly no coincidence that the beginning of this love story coincides with the start of the Chinese reform era. Covid becomes a turning point, the end of hope that things will get better again.