74
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Screen DailyDavid D'ArcyScreen DailyDavid D'ArcyThere’s enough cinema in Among the Believers to set it a step above solid respectable investigation.
- 80VarietyRonnie ScheibVarietyRonnie ScheibThe filmmakers quietly expose conflicts and contradictions without the intrusion of voiceover, and with only occasional intertitles furnishing factual information.
- 80Village VoiceDiana ClarkeVillage VoiceDiana ClarkeEach person’s actions here are not theirs alone, but part of a network of complicated needs and conflicting ideologies that make up contemporary Pakistan. Some of the stories are difficult to hear, but they must be listened to.
- 80Time Out LondonTime Out LondonThe use of education as a tool to enforce an ardent religious ideology upon children is what’s most distressing here (remember Malala Yousafzai?), and the filmmakers back up their investigations with testimony from key speakers in the Pakistani academic communities and a young girl who ran away from her local madrassa training programme.
- 80Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleLos Angeles TimesRobert AbeleThere’s little that’s not dispiriting about Among the Believers and its measured, direct entrée into a closed world of hopeless boys and girls memorizing the Koran, but forbidden from learning its meanings.
- 70The New York TimesKen JaworowskiThe New York TimesKen JaworowskiThe directors let their subjects speak without overtly passing judgment.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeAmong the Believers is a step toward understanding how such a man can be entrusted with such a large percentage of a nation's children.
- 60The GuardianJordan HoffmanThe GuardianJordan HoffmanWhat I like about Among the Believers, a portrait of radical Islam in Pakistan, is how the first two-thirds of the movie strives to remain as balanced as possible.
- 50The PlaylistNikola GrozdanovicThe PlaylistNikola GrozdanovicBy pointing their camera at the Red Mosque, Trivedi and Naqvi add surprisingly little to the conversation.