Set in mid-70's, 12-year old Dvir Avni navigates between the equality values of his home-born Kibbutz and the relationship with his undermined mother, whom the Kibbutz members will to denounce.
A tendency toward broad novelistic storytelling... robs Sweet Mud of a focus.
– Robert Koehler,
Variety,
20 Sep 2006
fresh:
This is a film from the heart, from a firsthand familiarity that yields conflicted emotions over the gap between an ideal and its realization.
– Kirk Honeycutt,
Hollywood Reporter,
19 Jan 2007
rotten:
If [director] Shaul means for his indictment to have some contemporary resonance, to hint at conformist pressures in the current Israeli state, he fails to give us any of the blocks needed to build that thesis.
– Rick Groen,
Globe and Mail,
15 Jun 2007
fresh:
An appealing coming-of-age tale that takes on the difficult issues of mental illness and conformity.