RogerEbert.com by Godfrey Cheshire

Terrestrial Verses, one of the most brilliant and provocative films to emerge from Iran recently, has qualities that link it to both the modernist formal traditions of post-1979 Iranian cinema and the more recent trend of social and political asperities aimed at the authoritarian repressiveness of the Islamic Republic.

The New York Times by Alissa Wilkinson

Each small humiliation, taken alone, will raise your blood pressure a little. But put them all together, and more seismic reverberations may finally rattle a society to its core.

The Hollywood Reporter by Sheri Linden

Terrestrial Verses is a marvel of potent understatement.

Paste Magazine by Andrew Crump

For all of its cosmic implications, the film remains steadfast in its human devotions.

The Playlist by Jihane Bousfiha

Though the structure of the vignettes can grow repetitive as the film moves along to a scene nearly identical to the one that came before, Terrestrial Verses never falters in challenging traditional notions while simultaneously providing a glimmer of hope.

IndieWire by Ryan Lattanzio

This film is as muted in its approach to character and drama as its color palette, but the result is devastating.

Wall Street Journal by Zachary Barnes

It is a modest, methodical movie-in-vignettes that demonstrates the far-reaching, constrictive force of Iran’s regime and the society it has created. It is also a canny representation of the kind of straight-faced authoritarian illogic that creates its own delusional reality, which is then forced upon a people.

Variety by Jessica Kiang

This is punchy first-person filmmaking, from the point of view of the last person you want to be.

The Film Stage by David Katz

Through their concentrated and pared-down survey of institutional power, Asgari and Khatami show foremost how no behavior and social practice is spared the state’s gaze, and personal autonomy––especially for those outside the elites––remains only a myth.

Screen Daily by Neil Young

While there is no doubting the filmmakers’ admirably humanistic and progressive intentions, however, the picture itself somehow ends up less than the sum of its often-impressive parts.