Grey Matter Image
Metascore
  1. First Review
  2. Second Review
  3. Third Review
  4. Fourth Review

No score yet - based on 2 Critics Awaiting 2 more reviews What's this?

  • Summary: Set in modern-day Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, this radiant, unapologetically self-referential film-within-a-film describes the process and vision of an astute, determined filmmaker named Balthazar hustling for funds for his first feature, The Cycle of the Cockroach. But the themes of his haunted and trenchant drama, about the aftermath of genocide on a brother and sister, find no support from agencies interested in funding upbeat policy-related films detailing HIV prevention or gender-based violence. As Balthazar presses ahead, borrowing recklessly from a loan shark, two extended parts of the Cycle play out on the screen, measuring with profound subtlety the horror and systematic madness of events whose fundamental characteristics are anything but unique to Rwanda and whose aftermath is ongoing.(The Global Film Initiative) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. Reviewed by: David DeWitt
    Jan 19, 2012
    80
    There are no emotional fireworks here, just smoldering, quiet, lonely agony.
  2. Reviewed by: Kenji Fujishima
    Jan 17, 2012
    75
    Director Kivu Ruhorahoza dares to demolish fiction's inherent distance from what might be considered "reality."