The New York Times by Glenn Kenny

The movie raises disquieting questions, including a few that Mr. Mansky might not have meant to.

Screen Daily by Wendy Ide

What’s more unexpected is just how much Russian documentary filmmaker Vitaly Mansky is able to reveal despite, and often because of, the stringent restrictions imposed upon him.

Screen International by Wendy Ide

What’s more unexpected is just how much Russian documentary filmmaker Vitaly Mansky is able to reveal despite, and often because of, the stringent restrictions imposed upon him.

Salon by Andrew O'Hehir

There’s a terrible wonder in this rare glimpse inside a country that has tried to empty itself of all thought, all commerce and all civil society — of pretty much everything except an especially lame version of hero worship and despotism.

The New Yorker by Richard Brody

The vision of such severe regimentation is shocking; Zin-mi’s tears of shame and her sharply limited range of knowledge and inhibited behavior embody an outrage.

The Hollywood Reporter by Stephen Dalton

Both surreal and sinister, it feels like we are watching a real-life version of The Truman Show.

Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

One of the most fascinating things about Under the Sun is the contradictory thoughts it inspires.

IndieWire by Eric Kohn

Commissioned as propaganda, Under the Sun instead documents life inside its grip.

The A.V. Club by Noel Murray

The truths revealed in this film have more to do with the North Korean government’s self-consciousness about how they’re perceived by foreigners. Here, they seem desperate to appear productive, congenial, devoted, and above all, happy.

Variety by Dennis Harvey

While at about the two-thirds mark, Under the Sun begins to seem a bit attenuated, its obvious (if only implied) points already made, the ending is a stunner.

RogerEbert.com by Godfrey Cheshire

Although unintentionally funny throughout, its evocation of life in a totalitarian society is ultimately chilling. The happy picture the North Koreans struggle to present implies unfathomable depths of violence to the human spirit beneath its glossy surface.

Slant Magazine by Jesse Cataldo

Under the Sun's overall aesthetic identifies a willingness to settle for an easy condemnation of an obviously abysmal regime, while not doing anything challenging or enlightening with all the outstanding footage collected.