My Country, My Country

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego

A sobering documentary.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Hard to watch but important to see.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

As a substantial piece of the puzzle, this is worthwhile viewing.

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.

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.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The movie attempts to paint too large a canvas.

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.