93
Metascore
9 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100RogerEbert.comRobert DanielsRogerEbert.comRobert DanielsGerima’s Sankofa is an invocation not just to African ancestors, but also the present-day viewer. It calls to attention how history exists in the present, how the spirits of the long-gone can still affect today.
- 100Original-CinLiam LaceyOriginal-CinLiam LaceyThe focus of [Germina's] story is rebellion and liberation and treating his story as a sombre fable of a soul’s journey through time, he turns the luridly familiar to something poetic and tragic.
- 100The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeThe Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeSankofa’s marvels range from Gerima’s meticulous editing style and electrifying use of music to his liberating nonlinear storytelling techniques. But I find myself most consistently drawn to the film’s fluid embrace of language, what it reveals about rebellion and how it deepens our understanding of Gerima’s characters.
- 100Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasLos Angeles TimesKevin ThomasSankofa unfolds as a kind of oratorio--the film’s music in itself is incredibly rich and intoxicating--in which people deal with terrible cruelty through ritual and incantations of the African gods. It is a celebration of the strength of black people, in drawing upon their spiritual roots, to defy their oppressors--past and present alike.
- 100The New YorkerRichard BrodyThe New YorkerRichard BrodyWith this intricate web of personal and family connections, and the brave maneuvering in the face of the overseers’ commands, Gerima is doing nothing less than reconstituting and affirming the full humanity of the enslaved.
- 80The New York TimesCaryn JamesThe New York TimesCaryn James[Mr. Gerima's] film is ambitious in its depiction of slavery and accomplished in its visual command.
- Sankofa succeeds, on both a personal and a political level, because of the immediacy with which it conveys human suffering.
- 75Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreIt’s a poetic, mystical and meandering immersion in the life-as-a-slave experience, both for the viewer and for our on-screen surrogate.
- 70Time OutGeoff AndrewTime OutGeoff AndrewWhile there's no doubting the sincerity of writer/director Gerima's film, one can't help sensing more than a little déjà vu in his account of the manifest evils of slavery.