RogerEbert.com by Nell Minow

This film is a bittersweet love story about characters burdened by oppression, but the theme of liberation is as palpable as the sense of loss.

Los Angeles Times by Gary Goldstein

Director Peeter Rebane and his co-writer (and star), Tom Prior (they also produced), have created a compelling, tender, tragic, occasionally melodramatic look at forbidden love and desire.

IndieWire by Jude Dry

Prior and Zagorodnii are both so watchable, and their chemistry so electric, that it’s easy to get swept away in their romance. Historical accuracy be damned.

Film Threat

This is all competently executed, as Prior and Zagorodnii have impressive chemistry, and Rebane allows their performances to take center stage. Unfortunately, even though the two leads are a joy to watch, we can’t help but feel that we’ve seen what Firebird is offering before.

Film Threat by Sumner Forbes

This is all competently executed, as Prior and Zagorodnii have impressive chemistry, and Rebane allows their performances to take center stage. Unfortunately, even though the two leads are a joy to watch, we can’t help but feel that we’ve seen what Firebird is offering before.

Movie Nation by Roger Moore

There’s a reason romantic cliches became cliches. This is one way love develops, and as the script is taken from the memoirs of actor Sergey Fetisov, there’s only so much criticism that’s warranted about the waypoints of this romance.

The Hollywood Reporter by Sheri Linden

There’s so much potential heart and heartbreak in Firebird’s tale of forbidden passion that the screenplay and the cautious pacing become frustrating; with every ache measured and spelled out, the film’s dogged striving for poetry too often leaves it feeling disappointingly prosaic.

TheWrap by Dan Callahan

Unfortunately, the second half of Firebird is far less involving than the first.

The A.V. Club by Mark Keizer

Prior and Zagorodnii have a fair amount of chemistry, although both are so Fashion Week gorgeous that it edges Firebird near soft-core territory.

The New York Times by Teo Bugbee

Each line and image feels predetermined, as if Rebane and his characters had already decided this love story was a losing battle. There is loss, but little sense of risk.

Slant Magazine by Ed Gonzalez

There are clichés and then there are only clichés, and Firebird is suffocated by them.

The Playlist

Prior and Zagorodnii are at their best in casual conversation, either exchanging sheepish glances or knowing pleasantries under the base’s Big Brother-ish nose. But as soon as things get serious or even faintly sentimental, they talk like the guys in the movies.