Film Threat by Hanna B

As a cinematic experience, Yomeddine is near flawless, with a skillful direction, an engaging story, a fitting score and a captivating visual, but it particularly has to be praised for its actors.

The A.V. Club by Roxana Hadadi

There’s a lovely chemistry between Gamal, who Shawky met at Egypt’s Abu Zaabal Leper Colony, and Abdelhafiz. Both first-time actors, they capture the dynamic of two people pushed away from society who genuinely grow to feel love for each other.

Screen Daily by Tim Grierson

A simple story told with abundant gentleness, Yomeddine looks at a group of outcasts with such compassion and generosity that it has the good manners not to artificially inflate their tale with phony uplift.

Screen International by Tim Grierson

A simple story told with abundant gentleness, Yomeddine looks at a group of outcasts with such compassion and generosity that it has the good manners not to artificially inflate their tale with phony uplift.

CineVue by John Bleasdale

Yomeddine is an accomplished appeal for empathy and an entertaining journey of discovery.

TheWrap by Steve Pond

Rady Gamal, who plays Beshay, gives an affecting performance of playful charm with an undercurrent of deep sadness. He and Ahmed Abdelhafiz as Obama are a pair to root for, and Shawky gives them plenty of perils but also abundant moments of grace.

IndieWire by Eric Kohn

The best thing about writer-director A.B. Shawky’s feature-length debu...is the way it burrows inside Beshay’s life without devolving into a pity party.

Variety by Jay Weissberg

Anchored by lead Rady Gamal’s warm-hearted charisma, the film is a sweet, solid first feature marbled with genuinely touching moments that make up for times when the siren call of sentimentality becomes a little too loud.

Los Angeles Times by Michael Rechtshaffen

As Gamal, himself raised in a leper colony, knowingly navigates the uncomfortable glares he encounters along the way, Yomeddine (Arabic for “judgment day”) takes an affecting path toward belonging and acceptance.

The New York Times by Teo Bugbee

Yomeddine makes its strongest impression through the direction and performances; at times, the story is rather flimsy.

The Hollywood Reporter by Boyd van Hoeij

This is a picaresque road movie about two mismatched characters, with rookie director A.B. Shawky offering a motley and not entirely smooth cocktail of drama and melodrama, a dash of social critique and insight, some chuckles and a few tugs at the heartstrings, mainly by virtue of its near-virtuoso score.

The A.V. Club by A.A. Dowd

The film still feels more like a game of cards with a stacked deck than a story that demanded to be told.

The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw

It is a rather slight dramatic experience.