Life, Above All, is a sometimes gripping drama about this child who has to grow up too fast, who has to keep her family together and alive, and has come to terms with the stigma that her neighbors place on them.
- Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel, September 20, 2011
"Life, Above All" earns the tears it inspires. The film is about deep human emotions, evoked with sympathy and love.
- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, September 01, 2011
Perseverance is the theme of "Life, Above All," a drama that is deeply affecting, if also overwhelmingly bleak.
- Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic, August 25, 2011
This is a heartening story of resilience told without false uplift. It is hopeful without being mawkish, realistic but not oppressive.
- Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune, August 05, 2011
"Life, Above All," a deeply moving South African drama about AIDS and ostracism, manages to be, paradoxically, both austere and uplifting.
- Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post, August 05, 2011
If [its] allegorical underpinnings blur the film's edges, the performances bring it back into focus.
- Ty Burr, Boston Globe, August 04, 2011
Manyaka gives the character a gaze so true it could only open hearts and minds.
- Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times, July 22, 2011
A wrenching and powerful testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of a remorseless disease and societal prejudice.
- Bruce Demara, Toronto Star, July 17, 2011
Nicely splits the difference between ethnographic realism and melodramatic uplift.
- Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com, July 17, 2011
The fluidity of Schmitz's technique reflects a world in which tragedy and uplift are inextricably commingled.
- Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor, July 15, 2011
The script groans beneath a mass of symbolic winking and declamatory exposition that has the unfortunate effect of turning the villagers into credulous simpletons, ready to blow with any wind that carries them.
- Ella Taylor, NPR, July 15, 2011
Newcomer Manyaka, who as Chanda carries the family's burdens on her slender shoulders, is compelling -- she always seems to be leaning forward, ready to walk head first into her next battle.
- Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail, July 15, 2011
That tragedy is the real point of "Life, After All." And if the film makes people think about that problem, that's a good thing.
- Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger, July 15, 2011
The movie stares clear-eyed at a world where any kind of hope seems like a dream.
- Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News, July 15, 2011
This is a modest film, and an affecting one.
- Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal, July 14, 2011
A downer that too often resorts to melodrama.
- V.A. Musetto, New York Post, July 15, 2011
Does something that few painful dramas accomplish: It tells a tale of resilience without platitudes about the triumph of the human spirit or without false promises about an unclouded future.
- Manohla Dargis, New York Times, July 14, 2011
The director and his splendid cast assure that this tale about a strong little girl fighting to keep her family alive and together has both high art and a big heart, audience appeal and gut impact.
- Mary Corliss, TIME Magazine, July 14, 2011
Life, Above All suggests that ignorance and stigmatization are a problem only in the village, not in the highest office of government.
- Melissa Anderson, Village Voice, July 12, 2011
At the centre of this plain, extremely touching film is a heart-rending performance from Khomotso Manyaka...
- Philip French, Guardian [UK], May 28, 2011
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