Human Flow is rooted in specific current national and political situations, yet it offers a portrait of forced human movement and suffering that feels almost timeless.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Human Flow is an epic portrait of mass migration that understands how a lack of empathy often stems from a failure of imagination.
The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young
Shot in 23 countries, the film has an amazing breadth and a relentless moral drive that will make it a reference point for this subject, whatever the audience response may be.
Lost among the bulletins and traveling shots is any sense of the individuals whose distinctiveness is eliminated under the crushing word “refugee.”
With its epic scale and global reach, Human Flow is a powerful testament to a shameful crime against humanity.
The Guardian by Jordan Hoffman
This is an urgent, deep soak in the current refugee crisis.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Kate Taylor
Human Flow ventures further into pure documentary than Ai's previous work in that field but it's still an art film, with a circular rhythm to its scenes, lingering imagery and a prolonged running time of 140 minutes.
Screen International by Lee Marshall
This sprawling, meandering compendium of dispossessed people in transit is a profoundly human film, a heartfelt call to empathy, but also something of a politicised nature documentary.
Ai’s approach occasionally tips too far toward aestheticizing a dire situation.
The Telegraph by Robbie Collin
Human Flow makes a virtue of its vastness, creating an epic tapestry of souls that stretch from as far away as Syria, Kenya and Burma to the Calais ‘Jungle’ encampment on Britain’s doorstep.