GAMES: GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer MUSIC: Last.fm | MP3.com MOVIES: Metacritic | Movietome TV: TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Film

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

My Country, My Country
Zeitgeist Films

My Country, My Country reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 74 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.3 out of 10
based on 18 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Working alone in Iraq over eight months, director/cinematographer Laura Poitras creates an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Iraqis living under U.S. occupation. (Zeitgeist Films)


GENRE(S): Documentary  
DIRECTED BY: Laura Poitras  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: March 20, 2007 
Theatrical: August 4, 2006 
RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 
LANGUAGE(S): Arabic / English / Kurdish (with English subtitles) 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
When Riyadh's family jokes about the purple stain that marks them as resistance targets after they vote, the black humor speaks volumes about them as individuals, as Sunnis and as Iraqis with a dream of a better way.
Read Full Review
90
Village Voice Michael Atkinson
It seems easily the most valuable piece of film to emerge about the war in all of its three-plus years.
Read Full Review
88
TV Guide Ken Fox
Poitras boldly dispenses with the traditional documentary voice-over, but her film is filled with telling moments that are far more eloquent than any scripted narration.
Read Full Review
80
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
A keenly constructed and tragic film, probably the best documentary so far to depict the Iraqi side of the current conflict.
Read Full Review
80
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Perhaps the most telling image in this remarkable movie is that of a relative intently swatting flies in Riyadh's house, while fighting rages outside.
Read Full Review
80
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
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.
Read Full Review
78
Austin Chronicle Steve Davis
Even the most ardent of neoconservatives might find this intimate and nuanced documentary about life in occupied Iraq difficult to shake – all politics aside, it is the human element that ultimately defines a nation as a people.
Read Full Review
75
San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego
A sobering documentary.
Read Full Review
75
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Hard to watch but important to see.
Read Full Review
75
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Reserving the only trace of editorializing for the end credits, which list some sobering numbers on the occupation and this so-called successful election, Poitras mainly allows her subjects and the circumstances to speak for themselves.
Read Full Review
70
Variety Derek Elley
Gotham-based documaker Laura Poitras ("Flag Wars") comes up with a still-timely, quietly hard-hitting look at the Iraqi situation with My Country, My Country, focusing on the lead-up to and outcome of the Jan. 30, 2005, Iraq election.
Read Full Review
70
The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck
While My Country, My Country is hardly an exhaustive depiction of its subject, it provides much in the way of material and perspectives previously unexposed.
Read Full Review
70
The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis
Without comment but with unusual sensitivity, Ms. Poitras, exposes the emotional toll of occupation on Iraqis and American soldiers alike.
Read Full Review
70
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
As a substantial piece of the puzzle, this is worthwhile viewing.
Read Full Review
67
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Though the events have a rambling overfamiliarity, there's a real story between the lines: the resentment over the U.S. occupation on the part of non-insurgent Iraqis.
Read Full Review
63
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
The subject of Iraq haunts and divides us so much these days that a film like Laura Poitras' documentary My Country My Country is valuable, no matter its level of achievement.
Read Full Review
60
Washington Post Desson Thomson
The movie attempts to paint too large a canvas.
Read Full Review
50
New York Post Kyle Smith
Even on that happy 2005 election day, which was so successful that it led to a December round of elections in which the Sunnis did participate, Poitras takes a break to show us a close-up of someone slitting the neck of a rooster.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Deb D. gave it a9:
Poitras offers an amazing peek into Iraq in the months leading up to the historic 2005 elections.

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: MLB | Spore | iPhone 3G | Paris Hilton | Antivirus Software | GPS | Recipes | Shwayze | NFL

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use