Critic Reviews

• Trevor Johnston, Time Out

  An insidiously memorable visual experience, even if it offers only dazzling snapshots of contemporary life in the region which gives it its title.

• Bernard Besserglik, Hollywood Reporter

  A love story with star actors and a bigger budget heightens the mainstream appeal of Tony Gatlif's ethnic road musical.

• Leslie Felperin, Variety

  Seemingly semi-improvised dialogue is kept mostly to a minimum, which is just as well because some of it's awful.

• Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile

  The mood, the music and the melancholy remain true to Gatlif's signature, but there is a sense of incompleteness about the film which detracts from it.

• Urban Cinefile Critics, Urban Cinefile

  Perhaps Tony Gatlif's oddest film to date, it's a kind of road trip with so few borders that it's easy to get lost along the way. The plot is as obtuse as its mix of languages

• Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

  No vampires.

• Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall

  A remarkably gutsy odyssey.

• Derek Malcolm, This is London

  The whole is lively and colourful but those who know Gatlif 's work may feel they've seen it all before. If you haven't, you may be more impressed.

• Anthony Quinn, Independent

  Gatlif seems literally to make it up as he goes along, a modus operandi that works fine in the impromptu musical interludes but fails utterly in terms of drama.

• Nigel Andrews, Financial Times

  When not hyperkinetic, the film is stone-cold dull.

• Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]

  Gatlif is thrilled by the apparently inexhaustible energy of Romany music; a little of it goes quite a long way. But it's beautifully shot.

• Wendy Ide, Times [UK]

  The real love affair is not between Zingarina and Tchangalo; it's between Zingarina and the country where she has her child.

• Jon Fortgang, Film4

  Raw, ragged, rambling and romantic - if the sound of a furious violin drifting down the alley quickens your pulse, you may find Gatlif's gypsy drama a seductive and potent experience.

• Laura Bushell, BBC

  Gatlif's vision of life on the open road is highly (sometimes overly) romantic, peppered with lively music and striking landscapes: it's the feeding of the senses that takes priority over plotting or polish in Transylvania.

• David Jenkins, Total Film

  French- Algerian director Tony Gatlif shows great skill in capturing local colour and texture, sourcing a rogues' gallery of memorable images from the fog-shrouded environs. He's less successful at giving any direction or meaning to his central pairing's

• Jonathon Williams, Little White Lies

  Confused passion and twisted emotions make for a captivating ride.

• Kat Brown, Empire Magazine

  Forget the plot and soak up the glorious cinematography.

• Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film

  The landscape plays a major role... with its bleak, open spaces, adding to the feeling that the characters and their emotions are curiously incidental.

Read all 18 critic reviews