100
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
Everything about this subtly directed drama enhances its pathos and humor, especially an astonishing performance by Gorintin, a 90-something woman only a few years into her acting career.
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What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
90
The film is traditionally and effectively made; it also is superbly acted.
75
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
This sensitive drama will appeal to anyone who has strained against the confines of family - or basked happily in its comforts.
90
The kind of small film -- morally ambiguous, graceful in its admission of imperfect knowledge, at once specific and universal -- that expands our understanding of the emotional economy of family life, with its ebb and flow of love and hostility, secrecy and egregious candor. You must see this film.
80
The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck
Almost unbearably moving at times, Julie Betuccelli's simple but sublime debut feature presents a portrait of maternal love and female fortitude that will reduce the stoniest of viewers to tears.
70
Bertuccelli's heartfelt film affords a unique peek into the hearts and minds of a generation who, after having been awakened from the lie they'd been living all their lives, must now face the aftermath of an entire nation's failure.
91
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
Superb family drama.
75
The best actress currently on New York screens is Esther Gorintin, a 90-year-old Pole who provides the emotional center for Julie Bertucelli's delicate, bittersweet comedy-drama, Since Otar Left, which is set in Paris and Tbilisi.
90
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
If Otar is, finally, a mite thin and predictably structured, that takes little away from the filmmaker and her cast, who work hard at fashioning the most outlandish special effect of all: believable human life.
90
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
Sustains a perfect balance of pathos, humor and a clear-headed realism. One tiny misstep, and it could have tumbled into an abyss of tears.