★★★★
"Unexpectedly affecting...it is finally very moving"
Peter Bradshaw The Guardian
"Danis Tanovic's heart-rending drama re-creates the plight of an impoverished Roma family"
Geoffrey Macnab The Independent
★★★★★
"This is not just social realism writ large - it's a political parable about a society destroyed where the people pay the price of capitalist 'freedom' "
Jeff Sawtell The Morning Star
★★★★
‘The title of this docudrama… laced with bitter irony: that understated ‘episode’ describes a real-life national scandal’
‘A compelling and compassionate affair. (It also makes you terribly grateful for the NHS.)’
Ali Catterall, TOTAL FILM
★★★★
”Tanovic at his best: sheer, concentrated film-making”
Tom Birchenough, The Arts Desk
★★★★
‘Scorches the conscience’ ★★★★
David Parkinson, EMPIRE (online)
"A raw and stirring piece of social realism that challenges dramatic conventions"
Christo Hall, LITRO
“The latest drama from award-winning Bosnian director Danis Tanović’s …exposing the institutional discrimination faced by Bosnia-Herzegovina's Roma minority…a harrowing personal ordeal that became a national scandal.”
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH FESTIVAL
'Awarded the Grand Jury Prize at Berlin, An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker is a story of courage in the face of hardship and injustice.'
“Tanović fashions an unflinching exposé of the institutional discrimination faced by Bosnia- Herzegovina's Roma minority…his non-professional performers, meanwhile, lend the project a compelling authenticity…the knowledge that they are reliving their own nightmarish memories only bolsters the emotional potency of Tanović's pointed social critique.”
Dimitri Eipides, TIFF 2013
"Drawing from real life events, Tanović docudrama gains its power from the emotionally stirring scenario and all-round naturalistic performances
“An unashamedly angry picture, yet one that also celebrates the solidarity and courage of a oppressed minority in the face adversity”
Owen Van Spall, EYE FOR FILM
‘This astonishing and disturbing feature-length film, with it implacable dramatic arc, (…) is reminiscent of the best moments of neorealism, without the pathos’.
Marc Semo, Libération
'Winner of two major prizes at this year’s Berlinale, this is no less powerful than Tanović’s acclaimed (if very different) No Man’s Land.' A shocking, admirably unsentimental indictment of how the poor – and, specifically, the Roma – are treated in today’s Europe...shot in a raw, documentary style.'
Geoff Andrew,
London Film Festival 2013 Programme
‘Breathtaking like a thriller, heartbraking without any pathos... his film is a jewel’.
Marie-Elisabeth Rouchy, Le Nouvel Observateur
‘A true story filmed like a fit of anger by the Bosnian director Danis Tanovic. An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker is an act of citizenship and the work of a filmmaker’.
Eric Libiot,
L’Express
“The fifth feature from Academy Award-winning director Danis Tanović. A darkly naturalistic piece of social realism.”
Patrick Gamble, CINE-VUE
'Bosnian Oscar-winner Danis Tanović adapts a notorious news story into a starkly compelling docu-drama... a universal human story at heart with a coldly furious edge of political protest.'
Stephen Dalton, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
'A cry for help from the Bosnian lower class...steadily illustrates a negligent health care system to engrossing ends...an exposé clothed as story.'
Eric Kohn, Indiewire
'Rejecting any temptation to over-dramatize...Tanovic paints a desolate but sadly authentic portrait of stagnant poverty that doesn't even consider the option of rising up in protest.'
Dan Fainaru, Screen
‘An affecting tale’
Geoff Andrew, Sight and Sound