60
Questionable as a theory of history, but as a human sentiment, it's touching to behold.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
60
Explores another courageous, little-known chapter in the saga of resistance and heroics during World War II.
60
In the end, this admirably broadens our knowledge of the era but doesn't much deepen it.
88
This is the rare Holocaust documentary that ends on an optimistic note, and Comforty's film might even help reinforce one's faith in humankind.
70
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
The Optimists is filled with first-person testimony from Jews who were saved and non-Jews who saved them, people like Rubin Dimitrov, a baker who hid Jews in his ovens and says simply, "a true human being is obliged to help." As a rescued Jew says with emotion at the film's conclusion, "to be a Bulgarian is to be a mensch."
70
The New York Times by Lawrence Van Gelder
The director, who also served as producer along with Lisa Comforty, his wife, spent 12 years compiling the archival clips and photographs that make up this compact and elegant film.