New York Post by V.A. Musetto

A stunning drama from that remote former Soviet republic.

Salon by Andrew O'Hehir

Schizo is in its way a taut and exciting thriller.

New York Daily News by Jami Bernard

With a cast of mostly non-actors, the film seems rough-hewn, like something you'd find rusted along a road. But it's actually a sophisticated blend of crime thriller, coming-of-age story and social realism.

TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox

It's a gripping, understated thriller with a solid emotional undercurrent that builds to an unexpectedly moving denouement.

The New York Times by Dana Stevens

Ms. Omarova has a painter's eye for composition and a novelist's sense of character.

Variety

Schizo manages to keep it fresh.

Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum

If one discounts the facile and unconvincing ending, this first feature by Guka Omarova, offers a convincingly bleak view of how a 15-year-old boy could get ahead in rural Kazakhstan in the early 90s.

The A.V. Club by Noel Murray

Though it's equally concerned with sensitive young criminals in squalid communities, Schizo is no "City Of God," for better and worse.

Village Voice by Michael Atkinson

A modest, formulaic day trip from Kazakhstan.

Film Threat by Phil Hall

A compelling screenplay, to be certain. But sadly, Omarova's direction is too leisurely to wring any emotional power.