80
The New York Times by Dana Stevens
Poignant though it is, the movie is the opposite of depressing. There is too much life in it.
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What are critics saying?
70
Haroun's film is both touching and, ultimately, almost perversely optimistic.
70
Understated but affecting.
75
New York Daily News by Jack Mathews
Haroun is deft at handling the joys and pain of childhood. He neither condescends nor over-sentimentalizes. It is a story of separation anxiety (for Amine) and coming of age (for Tahir) and it's universal.
70
Haroun and cinematographer Abraham Haile Biru carefully frame their characters with a painterly elegance that is at times truly startling.
50
New York Post by Megan Lehmann
This modest little film out of Africa suffers from largely rudderless direction, relying for any sense of profundity on the breathtaking beauty of Abraham Haile Biru's cinematography.
70
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
By way of a tragic left hook, Haroun's relaxed movie climaxes back where it began, on the devastated home ground. The journey, however pessimistic, is like a gentle handshake.
100
Truly magnificent.
70
Abouna starkly defines the masculine and feminine influence in raising children, and what happens when they're not so complementary.
70
The New Republic by Stanley Kauffmann
The story of the film is a quiet local tale; the directing is sophisticated.