87
Metascore
20 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Rosi offers a simple, stark contrast between quiet moments of everyday life and tragedy as mass fleeing results in sunken boats, horrific injuries and death.
- 100Slant MagazineClayton DillardSlant MagazineClayton DillardFire at Sea initiates a narrative that probes the fundamental gap between wanting to help and actually being able to do so.
- 100The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawFire at Sea is masterly film-making.
- 90Screen DailyLee MarshallScreen DailyLee Marshall[A] powerful, at times shocking but also intensely human documentary.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungThe Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungWhere journalism leaves off, Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare) begins. It takes a unique documentary filmmaker like Gianfranco Rosi to capture the drama through the periscope of his camera focused on the small Sicilian island of Lampedusa.
- 80Time Out LondonDave CalhounTime Out LondonDave CalhounThe film's quietly angry plea is for compassion, understanding and more than one eye open on this modern horror.
- 80CineVueCineVueFire at Sea is a film that expertly plays with contrasting moments and themes.
- 70VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeRosi has long been drawn to quiet lives, but has never been quite so successful in conveying the soulful qualities he sees in them to his audience — until now, using the oblique approach of Lampedusa’s residents to spotlight this growing international crisis, while using his young protagonist’s obliviousness to reflect and indict our own.
- 50The Film StageGiovanni Marchini CamiaThe Film StageGiovanni Marchini CamiaWhile Rosi certainly manages to jolt the viewer out of complacency, his strategy towards this end is so ethically dubious as to border on repellent.