Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

Tells a tale that is stranger than fiction several times over. Viewers of this remarkable documentary will be astonished at not only what this art looks like and why it's forbidden, but also where it is and how it got there.

Village Voice by Ernest Hardy

It's a must-see for anyone interested in art.

The New York Times by Neil Genzlinger

The filmmakers found an appealing collection of relatives and others who knew these artists and Savitsky to tell the story, but they also let the art do the talking, with loving, lingering shots of the brightly colored works.

Variety by Dennis Harvey

Absorbing documentary is a natural for artscasters.

San Francisco Chronicle

Does an admirable job of telling the stories of the obsessive Savitsky and other important Soviet artists, such as Alexander Volkov, Aleksei Rybnikov and Mikhail Kurzin.

Boston Globe by Tom Russo

In The Desert of Forbidden Art, documentarians Amanda Pope and Tchavdar Georgiev offer some background on the late Savitsky, a painter who initially collected ethnic folk art quashed by the Stalin regime.

Boxoffice Magazine by Ed Schied

This impressive documentary on rarely seen art will have strong appeal for art aficionados.

Time Out by Joshua Rothkopf

As brought to life in the stentorian tones of Ben Kingsley, the curator comes off like a driven visionary, but his actual efforts aren't dramatized enough. The paintings speak more articulately: doomy, dank colors and oppressive shapes.

New York Post by V.A. Musetto

Sadly, with the Soviet Union gone, the art faces a new enemy: Islamic extremists.