Metacritic-Rezensionen

The Survival of Kindness might be too abstract for its own good, a creative decision that will alienate a good part of its potential audience. Still, this is a remarkable return for de Heer, as The Survival of Kindness lingers with you long after the credits roll, forcing the viewer to reflect on the tough questions of race and power it explores.

Man’s enormous inhumanity to man is reproduced in precise, characterful miniature, with a pared-back artistry that somehow earns de Heer the right to be thematically blunt, and deeply pessimistic.

An epic adventure in the guise of an arthouse flick, The Survival of Kindness makes up in visual power and moral clarity what it lacks in subtext.

Rolf de Heer’s wordless allegorical drama explores its themes in savage, boundless landscapes; in stark images of hate and violence; and in disease and blood.

The Survival of Kindness has static elements of an art installation, a non-narrative dream state that is part arresting, part frustrating.

Although the storytelling conveys deep compassion for the plight of persecuted peoples, and Hussein’s unflinching performance speaks volumes, mostly without words, there’s a grim inevitability to The Survival of Kindness that becomes wearing, making its 96 minutes feel longer.