“Painfully beautiful.”

(Duma)

“Mothers is a daring, provocative, controversial film that explores the deepest human emotions: love and fear, while searching for the truth in between the two. […] Mothers will not give you refuge from reality, but - on the contrary - it will make you look at reality and oneself with eyes wide open.”

(Rochester Democrat & Chronicle)

“Mothers opens up lines between documentary and fiction at the same time that it also blurs them[…] Such moments give Manchevski’s film a special place in contemporary cinema that should be viewed by audiences around the world. […] Many scenes and moments that will stay with you long after viewing the film.”

(Andrew Horton, Script)

“Manchevski gradually reveals the corruption and the failure of the Macedonian investigative and judicial system. […] Manchevski‘s esthetic experiment proves successful
and confirms -- especially in the two fiction episodes -- his extraordinary talent as a storyteller of images and moods, his skills in directing actors of every age and his ability to suggest hints instead of verifying theories.”

(Giovanella Rendi, close-up.it)

“Mothers begins with fiction, indeed with the fabrication of a lie, moves on to an attempt at the fabrication of a myth and ends in the shattering imagery of the real, where no
fabrication is possible. […] There is no easy reading of Mothers, only a need for us to work with the filmmaker to uncover its many meanings.”

(Piers Handling, Toronto International Film Festival Director)

“Mothers is a very strange film, sometimes sophisticated, poignant and often elliptical. […] One of the most interesting and original filmmakers of recent years [...] One of those authors who are not afraid to face the genres and to push the boundaries.”

(Diego Pierini, LoudVision)

“A provocative and innovative film from Macedonia that blurs the line between reality and fiction. An intensely engaging film, Mothers is not only a study on how reality is perceived and recorded, but also an examination of how women survive in a contemporary post-war culture.”

(Clevelandfilm.org)

“Manchevski goes beyond the literal -- to explore a deeper realm where sexuality, motherhood and the art of storytelling reside in conflict. […] Mothers is a return to form for
filmmaker Milcho Manchevski.”

(The Cleveland Plain Dealer)

“Mothers is an operation completely extraneous to the conceptual and aesthetic codes of contemporary cinema. […] Manchevski’s epic humanism finally returns.”

(CineClandestino.it)

“Mothers is a devastatingly stark, yet ultimately compassionate portrait of mothers, violence and the state.”

(Amy Guggenheim)

“Mothers debunks the notion that documentaries can tell the truth.”

(Virginia Wright Wexman, Off screen)

“Art or death. Opposing compromise, opposing image consumerism.”

(Fulvia Caprara, La Stampa)

“Mothers is a film about moral courage.”

(Zitty Berlin)

“Stylistically provocative.”

(Connor McGrady, Brooklyn Rail)