60
The New York Times by Ben Kenigsberg
It’s more of a document than a documentary; calling it cinema seems like an error of categorization.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
100
Over the course of its simple, unadorned 82 minutes, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s Hissein Habré: A Chadian Tragedy wrecks you in ways you might not have known were possible.
90
[A] concise, clearly told and deeply effective documentary.
80
The Hollywood Reporter by Jordan Mintzer
By focusing his camera on those “half-men, completely broken” by Habre’s reign and allowing them to tell their stories, Haroun is helping his country to finally mourn its own tragedy, while his warm and understanding approach offers up what feels like a path toward appeasement.
80
The New Yorker by Richard Brody
Haroun journeys through the country and films his travels to meet with the regime’s victims. He brings a profound compassion and a controlled rage to accounts of moral obscenities, while also recording accounts of deep solidarity among the victims, even under terrifying circumstances.