Critic Reviews

• Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times

  A compelling report.

• Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

  A memorable portrait of a nation's growing pains.

• Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times

  In 90 captivating minutes, Laura Poitras' extraordinary documentary My Country, My Country gives you a greater understanding of the situation in Iraq than you'd get from 100 hours of Fox News or CNN.

• Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

  What My Country, My Country does best is show us that while both the Americans and the Iraqis care about the country's future, their cultural backgrounds and world views inevitably make them seem alien to each other.

• Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle

  ... sobering documentary ...

• Desson Thomson, Washington Post

  The movie attempts to paint too large a canvas.

• Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film

  Powerful and moving.

• Ted Murphy, Murphy's Movie Reviews

  Part of the problem with the film, though, is that some of the scenes with the doctor and his family and the doctor and his patients have a staged feel to them -- as if, they were also putting on a "show."

• Jules Brenner, Cinema Signals

  Poitras demonstrates fine judgement in making Dr. Riyadh the central focus of her well-detailed story.

• Cynthia Fuchs, PopMatters

  The documentary maintains an observant distance from the sweep of history, and even the elections.

• Sean Means, Salt Lake Tribune

  Poitras creates a vivid portrait of Iraqi civilians siding with neither the U.S. occupation nor the insurgents but just looking for the killing to end.

• Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

  ... day-to-day life under occupation where citizens still live without power... and extremist rebels wage a campaign of intimidation against Iraqis and Americans alike.

• Laura Kelly, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

  The camera should never leave the four walls of the Riyad family home. Beyond that story, there is a dullness to the pacing and the wider tale of the Iraqi elections.

• Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

  Despite some flaws--docu doesn't illustrate the political backdrop or explains where the Sunis fit vis-a-vis the Kurds, Shia, Arbas--Poitras' feature is essential in venturing into new grounds that no journalists or directors have previously explored

• Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Daily News

  The film delivers powerful images of a country mired in chaos, where explosions, gunfire, power outages and unrest rule the day, leading to a national despondency that understandably fails to rise above the endemic suffering and daily death.

• Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly

  Remarkable.

Read all 16 critic reviews