Variety by Jessica Kiang

While Santoalla is a small story, its poignancy resonates, like an echo finding its way through the peaks and valleys of this windswept, eternal landscape.

RogerEbert.com by Godfrey Cheshire

A documentary that had this reviewer wondering if it was a real or faux doc until the very end. Turns out it’s real, but the suspicion that it might be otherwise is a tribute both to the debuting filmmakers’ skills in shaping their story and that story’s innate dramatic power.

Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

It focuses on how the best intentions toward humanity are not enough if an ability to actually get along with fellow human beings is not part of the mix.

Village Voice by Alan Scherstuhl

Becker and Mehrer’s film is more about place and silence than it is about tension or psychology.

The Hollywood Reporter by Neil Young

Santoalla isn't without its longueurs, even at 83 minutes, and can veer into the repetitive at times. But it scores in its judicious combination of archival materials (some of it shot by camcorder-fan Verfondern himself) with the directors' own interview-based footage, taking that most ancient of squabbles — a feud between farmers — and turning it into a poignant elegy for tragically lost opportunities.

The New York Times by Glenn Kenny

Santoalla ends with the mystery solved. The threads that remain hanging imbue this peculiar story of paradise lost with a tragic resonance.

Slant Magazine by Chuck Bowen

Andrew Becker and Daniel Mehrer get close to their subjects only to retreat when things get truly dangerous.

The A.V. Club by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky

A story is only as interesting as what can be drawn from it, and Becker and Mehrer seem reluctant to draw too much, perhaps realizing the confines they have to work within; even at a scant 83 minutes, the movie feels over-stretched.