New Orleans Times-Picayune by Mike Scott

A captivating portrait of the frailty and the failures of humanity.

Total Film by Philip Kemp

A hugely powerful, moving study of a small village's stand against overwhelming state power. Despite all the suffering and injustice, the final message is one of optimism that feels neither facile nor tacked-on.

The New York Times by A.O. Scott

5 Broken Cameras deserves to be appreciated for the lyrical delicacy of his voice and the precision of his eye. That it is almost possible to look at the film this way - to foresee a time when it might be understood, above all, as a film - may be the only concrete hope Mr. Burnat and Mr. Davidi have to offer.

Time Out by Joshua Rothkopf

There has to be room for this kind of plea, especially a work that, obliquely, captures so many largely unreported details: the night raids rounding up children, the torn-up olive trees and kids' soccer games in the battle zone.

The Hollywood Reporter by John DeFore

The result is uniquely powerful, putting faces and human consequences to a political dispute that seemingly will never end.

Village Voice by Ella Taylor

What makes 5 Broken Cameras stand out is its insistence on nuance and its refusal to get caught up in the self-defeating war of words over who is the bigger victim.

Los Angeles Times by Sheri Linden

The immediacy with which it bears witness to injustice is powerful and affecting, as are the images of joy he captures amid the burning olive trees.

Empire by David Parkinson

A touching and revelatory piece of film-making about the plights of real people living in an uncertain world.

Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern

5 Broken Cameras is short on facts and, like the demonstrations themselves, provocative by nature. Still, it casts a baleful light on anguishing, seemingly incessant scenes of tear gas hurled, bullets fired, villagers fleeing for their lives and, on one shocking occasion, a life lost as the camera rolls. This is how the conflict looks from the other side of the barrier.

Slant Magazine

The documentary provides a birdsong of perseverance in the face of irrational violence, immense historic anger, and grim, seemingly insurmountable realities.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey

Both a moving first-person essay and an artful exercise in political advocacy, 5 Broken Cameras is about the experience of West Bank protests from the inside.

San Francisco Chronicle by Walter Addiego

The film's sense of intimacy, its closeness to real people and painful events, allows it to reach a deeper place than more conventional pieces of political rhetoric.

New York Post by V.A. Musetto

The issues are complex and not easily solved. But no matter which side you are on, you'll be moved by this intimate work.

The A.V. Club

That intertwining of Burnat's home life and his political one make 5 Broken Cameras an unusual, moving work about a much-explored topic.

Slant Magazine by Chris Cabin

The documentary provides a birdsong of perseverance in the face of irrational violence, immense historic anger, and grim, seemingly insurmountable realities.

Variety by Leslie Felperin

An undeniably powerful record of the Palestinian village of Bil'in's course of civil disobedience from 2005 to the present...the pic is also shamelessly sentimental and manipulative in its construction.