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This weekend, the film "Coronation" by Ai Weiwei is playing with the Festival on Human Rights in Geneva.A first for this shock documentary in the first months of the pandemic in Wuhan.Meeting with the artist, which is also very pessimistic about the future of democracy.

"The world will probably never know what really happened in Wuhan a little over a year ago," warns the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who now lives in Portuguese.

His film "Coronation" offers a rare window on the health crisis in China: initial blackout, chaos in a poorly prepared health system and the more than three months of confinement of the city of Wuhan, cut off from the world and leftitself.

The film has never been shown in public or streaming on the main platforms.And this, according to its director, due to the Chinese political pressure on the world film industry.

The Swiss, they did not give in to pressures.Ai Weiwei's film is scheduled for this weekend at the external festivallian of the film and International Human Rights Forum in Geneva.Purely symbolic gesture, because the exiled artist does not believe that Switzerland can exert any influence."Swiss sanctions would have no effect on China," he said recently in the Zurich daily Tages-Anzeiger.

In an interview with Swissinfo.CH, Ai Weiwei says he doesn’t rock illusions: the democratic wave of the last 40 years is coming to an end and censorship will be the rule in the world according to the pandemic.

swissinfo.CH: You are not welcome in China.How did you manage to shoot in Wuhan?

Ai Weiwei: I had filmed the first pandemic in 2003, when the Sars appeared in China, so this is not the first time that I have been dealing with the subject.I have been making investigation movies in China for a long time, which has earned me trouble.I know how to film and what to film.We had colleagues and artists confined to Wuhan.We knew it would be a dramatically sad story.But I had never imagined that it would be a global explosion and that we would still be in the same situation today, with thousands of people who die every day and no sign that the pandemic will disappear.

I contacted the people I know and in whom I trust.I gave them instructions every day after they had sent me the images.It was incredibly difficult because of confinement.People could not move.But we had contacts in six hospitals and also in temporary military barracks installed to take care of patients.

What did you want to show?

We tried to show different points of view.Not only hospitals, but also human life, abandoned and forgotten people.The vast majority of people are speechless.And when you don't have a voice, you don't count.Or you are just a number.Emotions and values no longer want to say anything.

Your film will be screened this weekend in Geneva.But we have seen that global platforms have not shown it.What is it said of the influence of China?

I am very proud of what we have done.This is probably the most important film on the pandemic and on China.What I wanted to show is how China plays its role in the political world.And how the world understands China.

Ironically, the first lesson I received did not come from China, but from West.All the main world film festivals where we tried to present the film, Toronto, New York, and the main online distributors like Netflix and Amazon have all started with the film.But in the end, the answer was "we cannot accept your film".

How did you react?

I understand the situation.The film market is now Chinese.Last month precisely, China exceeded the United States as the largest world market in the film.As for festivals, either they do self -censorship or they are under pressure from China.They can only present films that have the "seal of the dragon", recognized by the department of Chinese communist propaganda.

It is practically impossible to obtain this seal.Many of my colleagues in China have been trying for years, but never managed.

So, even if I do not criticize China, they [festivals and platforms] cannot be associated with my name.This would affect their commercial potential in China, where the State is the only buyer.

But even the Western entertainment and cinema industry refused to show my film in Berlin.I understand that they have a solid presence in China and that they just can't do it.They cannot afford to lose their business.It's neither good nor bad, it is a fact.The West abandoned its freedoms for the needs of capital and profit.

What you say is that freedom of expression faces challenges not only in China, but also in the West.How do you think the world will come out of the pandemic in this area?

When we talk about freedom of expression, we all know that we are going to live in very worse conditions.Everywhere.In China, we are subject to intense control and surveillance, as in a science fiction film, except that this is very real.

But in the West, we have just learned how large companies have leased information on their users to Chinese companies.In China, everything is under the control of the government.So the authorities can control information on individuals, also in the West.

Do you think it will be permanent?

This is the new reality.With globalization, large companies are deeply involved with China and there is no border, ideology or argument of any kind.There are only profits.Strategically, China is a winner.

The wave of democratization of the last 30 to 40 years is coming to an end.If you look at what's going on in the United States, Brazil or in so many other countries, there is a huge stick return in terms of democracy and liberal state.Many of these countries are in internal crisis, which creates a great advantage for authoritarian regimes.

Leaders like Bolsonaro, Vladimir Putin or Chinese Xi Jinping are strong men, who have skillfully managed to get what they want.I think they will last a long time and it seems that there is no way to stop them.

How do you assess the reaction of the West to this situation?

The West has no clear values.When a Washington Post journalist is killed in an embassy, the American government claims that it is nothing.If the West can accept this, it has no moral position to defend.Julian Assange is still in prison.He did nothing but provide a platform to reveal some state secrets.But if you allow such things, the so-called freedom of expression is a joke.You are not allowed to say that what they are going to accept.They will never let you say something really crucial or question the establishment.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has sent a mission to Wuhan.But do you think that one day, we will really know what happened a little over a year ago when the pandemic starts?

No, I do not think so.The communist regime is very powerful and keeping this secret is a priority for him.WHO visit was very superficial.The organization should bear the same responsibility, since at the very beginning of the crisis, it indicated that the disease was not transmitted between humans.It's insane.We are facing a much larger monster.

In terms of geopolitics, what do you think will happen in the post-pandemic period?

We live a very delicate moment.I do not think that the pandemic will really alarm people to the point of making them develop a clear strategy in the face of what human societies will have to face in the future.In many ways, we face realities that have no precedents in human history.Technology, powerful states like China and the West's inability to deal with this authoritarian state, in addition to the enormous climate problems.All this puts the future of humanity in question.