The Playlist

As Farah, first-timer Baya Medhaffer is a revelation, managing to combine a zest for life with teenage naiveté.

The Playlist by Kaleem Aftab

As Farah, first-timer Baya Medhaffer is a revelation, managing to combine a zest for life with teenage naiveté.

Screen Daily by Dan Fainaru

Leyla Bouzid’s fiercely committed debut should draw plenty of attention not only for the way it deals with the political climate in her homeland but also for how she charts the painful transition of her lead character from outspoken, rebellious adolescence to a more careful and often resigned adulthood.

The New York Times by Stephen Holden

As I Open My Eyes is best when it observes the fraught but loving mother-daughter relationship between Hayet and Farah.

Screen International by Dan Fainaru

Leyla Bouzid’s fiercely committed debut should draw plenty of attention not only for the way it deals with the political climate in her homeland but also for how she charts the painful transition of her lead character from outspoken, rebellious adolescence to a more careful and often resigned adulthood.

Variety by Jay Weissberg

Sharply yet subtly capturing the atmosphere of fear fostered by the dictatorship of President Ben Ali, this skillfully made drama is especially attuned to the myriad forms of surveillance, from the prurient to the political.

CineVue by Matthew Anderson

By using the tropes of the coming-of-ager - a rebellious teen and the strained relationship with her mother - as the central touchstone, Bouzid subtly, yet efficiently paints the nascent days of Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution as a force to be reckoned with.

Slant Magazine by Chuck Bowen

Leyla Bouzid successfully dramatizes how young people eroticize peril and risk due to a lack of experience.

Boston Globe by Peter Keough

The coming of age is not just that of character but of a whole nation, and despite the mild-seeming moniker, the Jasmine Revolution earned its victories the hard way.

Los Angeles Times by Sheri Linden

Baya Medhaffar inhabits the role of Farah with a blazing exuberance that’s matched by a dynamic sense of place. Director Leyla Bouzid may struggle to shape her narrative in the final reels, but through most of its running time her first feature pulses with in-the-moment vitality.

Village Voice

This debut feature earns its grown-up wisdom without selling out its youthful idealism.

The Hollywood Reporter by Boyd van Hoeij

Though only an adequate singer, Medhaffer practically explodes with energy when she’s behind the microphone, making for a very charismatic performer.

Village Voice by Sophia Nguyen

This debut feature earns its grown-up wisdom without selling out its youthful idealism.

RogerEbert.com by Godfrey Cheshire

Curiously, there’s virtually no mention of religion in the film. For that matter, politics creep into the tale only obliquely, and later. It appears we’re meant to understand that the band’s music and Farah’s lyrics have an edge of protest, but this is registered only as a very general sort of frustration and discontent.