75
Does an admirable job of telling the stories of the obsessive Savitsky and other important Soviet artists, such as Alexander Volkov, Aleksei Rybnikov and Mikhail Kurzin.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
80
Absorbing documentary is a natural for artscasters.
70
Boxoffice Magazine by Ed Schied
This impressive documentary on rarely seen art will have strong appeal for art aficionados.
90
It's a must-see for anyone interested in art.
60
As brought to life in the stentorian tones of Ben Kingsley, the curator comes off like a driven visionary, but his actual efforts aren't dramatized enough. The paintings speak more articulately: doomy, dank colors and oppressive shapes.
90
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
Tells a tale that is stranger than fiction several times over. Viewers of this remarkable documentary will be astonished at not only what this art looks like and why it's forbidden, but also where it is and how it got there.
80
The New York Times by Neil Genzlinger
The filmmakers found an appealing collection of relatives and others who knew these artists and Savitsky to tell the story, but they also let the art do the talking, with loving, lingering shots of the brightly colored works.
75
In The Desert of Forbidden Art, documentarians Amanda Pope and Tchavdar Georgiev offer some background on the late Savitsky, a painter who initially collected ethnic folk art quashed by the Stalin regime.
50
Sadly, with the Soviet Union gone, the art faces a new enemy: Islamic extremists.