75
The film falters a bit near the end, when it dwells on the romantic fallout of the affair, but all in all, “Amina” is an enterprising movie that makes this Internet story cinematically engaging.
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What are critics saying?
80
The insights the movie has aren’t exceptional; this stranger-than-fiction series of events is enough.
83
Even though The Amina Profile works as a cyber-thriller of sorts, I think it's much more wide-reaching than that, a story about online identity, but also about the danger of media-constructed narratives, one that manages to salute both citizen journalists, but also establishment outlets like NPR.
70
Deraspe returns specificity, intimacy, and human weirdness to this international scandal.
40
The Guardian by Jordan Hoffman
Bagaria’s personal journey has none of the gravitas on screen that the director wants it to have, especially when set against the backdrop of actual human rights crises in Damascus.
70
The New York Times by Ken Jaworowski
Even knowing the secret of A Gay Girl in Damascus doesn’t make this documentary any less tense. That’s a testament to Sophie Deraspe, a director who understands how to let a plot unfold.
67
Beyond treating this story like a potboiler, Deraspe does her best to make A Gay Girl In Damascus cinematic. She alternates nicely framed and photographed interviews with some fairly expressive dramatic reenactments. Some of these are pretty powerful.
75
RogerEbert.com by Sheila O'Malley
A compelling and insightful examination of this strange story, and it utilizes the cooperation of Sandra Bagaria, the Canadian woman who had been in a long-distance romantic relationship with Amina (even though the two had never met.)
60
Los Angeles Times by Sheri Linden
Sophie Deraspe's film is a compelling anatomy of an Internet hoax.
70
The Hollywood Reporter by Stephen Dalton
The Amina Profile is an absorbing, artfully assembled and timely reconstruction of a fascinating digital-age hoax.