The First Wave review – Covid’s devastating early days in New York

Matthew Heineman's powerful documentary captures the most acute weeks of the crisis as a Long Island hospital struggles to cope

Shot inside a New York hospital at the start of the pandemic, this documentary is an overwhelming emotional watch. In March last year, City of Ghosts director Matthew Heineman started filming on the wards of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center; he stayed for four months, through the worst of it.

It looks like a war zone: death everywhere, pagers buzzing, constant tannoy announcements of code blue" critical emergencies, medics sprinting to the next crisis. Anyone watching who had to say goodbye over FaceTime (a nurse holding up a phone in a clear plastic bag for their dying loved one) will find this traumatising. What is comforting is how the hospital's overworked exhausted staff pay attention to the human life in front of them - holding hands with the dying, tenderly stroking their faces.