Variety by Peter Debruge

[A] sublime, quietly elegiac feature debut.

RogerEbert.com by Glenn Kenny

Utama sounds a warning even as it casts a spell, and the spell is one of life and death and eternal returns and never-ending struggles, and the rest we can try to take when the work is done for the day.

The Playlist by Gregory Ellwood

Admittedly, Utama is a simple story, but one that packs an emotional punch without endless exposition or symbolism.

Time Out

It’s an astonishingly assured and emotionally engrossing debut. Grisi’s background as an award-winning photographer is evident in the composition of every shot, almost any one of which could hang on the wall of a gallery wall. Yet his narrative focus is always on Virginio and Sisa, whose expressions of intimacy and love are largely non-verbal yet deeply felt.

Screen Daily by Wendy Ide

Through the love story at the heart of this visually arresting feature debut, Utama offers the audience a relatable connection with a way of life which is on the verge of extinction.

The Hollywood Reporter by Jordan Mintzer

Utama is very much a pessimistic film, never shying away from the realities faced by those who still inhabit the highlands of Bolivia. And yet it’s also convincingly, and sometimes movingly, optimistic.

CineVue by Ben Nicholson

An understated but spectacularly mounted drama.

Film Threat by Alex Saveliev

An elegiac, minimalist fable, Utama is about many things: global warming, survival, our connections to each other, our priorities. It’s the silences that propel the narrative forward, the wide-open spaces that sear themselves into the mind. But hope prevails.

Screen Rant by Nadir Samara

No part of Utama feels fabricated. The costumes are a part of the environment; the camera work is as simple as it could be, but what is in front of the camera is elevated by a lovely stillness. Alvarez turns Bolivia into a series of portraits and Grisi is the perfect conduit to tell such a specific tale of love and life.

Time Out by David Hughes

It’s an astonishingly assured and emotionally engrossing debut. Grisi’s background as an award-winning photographer is evident in the composition of every shot, almost any one of which could hang on the wall of a gallery wall. Yet his narrative focus is always on Virginio and Sisa, whose expressions of intimacy and love are largely non-verbal yet deeply felt.

IndieWire by Carlos Aguilar

For all its otherworldly beauty, “Utama” could benefit from slightly more robust dramatic beats to complement the hyper-sensorial experience that imbues in the spectator, especially in addressing the displacement of Indigenous communities across the Americas and beyond.

The Film Stage by David Katz

Utama is a slow-motion look at how communities can falter, how rich heritage can be lost—to indifference from governments as well as a climate crisis that will decimate their way of life. If only it weren’t so gentle in its reminder.

Slant Magazine by Clayton Dillard

Stock story beats of generational dispute run throughout Utama, existing mainly to show off the widescreen possibilities of the Scope frame.

The New York Times by Manohla Dargis

While climate change shadows every anxious discussion here, it also remains at a safe remove, a vague threat embedded in an aesthetically soothing package and gently salted with tears.