Life, Above All 2010

Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times: Manyaka gives the character a gaze so true it could only open hearts and minds. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: If [its] allegorical underpinnings blur the film's edges, the performances bring it back into focus. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Does something that few painful dramas accomplish: It tells a tale of resilience without platitudes about the triumph of the human spirit or without false promises about an unclouded future. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: The film is built in such a way that its dynamic cast simply eases us toward the most obvious destination. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: This is a modest film, and an affecting one. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: There is less in-your-face grit in Cape Town-born director Oliver Schmitz's vision for this film than there is a careful pacing of somber revelations. Read more

Alison Willmore, AV Club: Life, Above All is something of a blunt instrument, but that doesn't minimize its crushing impact -- this fictional story of the prejudice faced by AIDS-infected people in rural South Africa could wring tears from a stone. Read more

Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: Perseverance is the theme of "Life, Above All," a drama that is deeply affecting, if also overwhelmingly bleak. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The fluidity of Schmitz's technique reflects a world in which tragedy and uplift are inextricably commingled. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: A well-meaning but ploddingly earnest after-school special... Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: That tragedy is the real point of "Life, After All." And if the film makes people think about that problem, that's a good thing. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: The script groans beneath a mass of symbolic winking and declamatory exposition that has the unfortunate effect of turning the villagers into credulous simpletons, ready to blow with any wind that carries them. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: The movie stares clear-eyed at a world where any kind of hope seems like a dream. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: A downer that too often resorts to melodrama. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: "Life, Above All" earns the tears it inspires. The film is about deep human emotions, evoked with sympathy and love. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Nicely splits the difference between ethnographic realism and melodramatic uplift. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: This is a heartening story of resilience told without false uplift. It is hopeful without being mawkish, realistic but not oppressive. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: In such a bleak story, the redemptive ending seems rushed and unconvincing, but director Oliver Schmitz has sent us a timely dispatch from a forgotten corner of the world that is honest above all. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Newcomer Manyaka, who as Chanda carries the family's burdens on her slender shoulders, is compelling -- she always seems to be leaning forward, ready to walk head first into her next battle. Read more

James Adams, Globe and Mail: Bernhard Jasper's cinematography, under Oliver Schmitz's direction, is at once funky and elegant while the scrip... is inspiring without resorting to any cheap sentimentality. Read more

Mary Corliss, TIME Magazine: The director and his splendid cast assure that this tale about a strong little girl fighting to keep her family alive and together has both high art and a big heart, audience appeal and gut impact. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: 'Life, Above All' is an inside-out portrait of a particular world, whose brutal, dark and unforgiving qualities are reflected in the film's scrubbed-away colours and shadowy interiors. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: A wrenching and powerful testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of a remorseless disease and societal prejudice. Read more

Melissa Anderson, Village Voice: Life, Above All suggests that ignorance and stigmatization are a problem only in the village, not in the highest office of government. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: "Life, Above All," a deeply moving South African drama about AIDS and ostracism, manages to be, paradoxically, both austere and uplifting. Read more