Popular reviews

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  Review by Ghostsmut ★★★½

  Seen at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

  I really enjoyed Desert Dancer and would sum it up as Billy Elliot with a death sentence. It tells the true(ish) story of Afshin Ghaffarian whose crime in life is wanting to express himself through the medium of dance in a country whose regime has decided it's illegal.

  What Desert Dancer gets right is a scary portrayal of living life in a country where things we take for granted here are punishable by jail and violence. The idea that to taste freedom people like you and me have to hack into servers to watch dancing videos on YouTube is terrifying and once again shows how good we have it. It's a fascinating thing…

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  Review by Alice ★★★½

  The main drawback of this for me was that a lot of it felt sort of unbelievable, so I guess that's cool because it's biographical. Sometimes the world is unbelievable!

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  Review by Joel Lake ★★

  The story of Afshin and his friends as they stage a massive dance demonstration in Iraq in a time where dance was forbidden and the ultimate punishment is death. A new girl Elaheh(Frieda Pinto) comes into Afshin's life and changes it forever.
  Desert Dancer is a compelling story about standing up for what you believe bogged down in generic melodrama and cliche story elements. newcomer director Richard Raymond keeps the story going and the chemistry of the leads is fun to watch.
  The story seems to get to its best part too early and the finale of the film just doesn't deliver overall.
  A film that deserved to be great, but falls into all the generic drama element that doesn't the film stand out at all.
  4/10

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  Review by Nicholas Partida ★★★★½

  Footloose meets the strict enforcement of moral law in Iran. A beautifully done film, stellar performances all around. There's a dance scene close to the end that made the entire film worthwhile to see just for that moment alone. An absolute must see.

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  Review by Enes ★★★

  A true life story that gives goosebumps. Although I don't like the way the movie is handled, I appreciate the struggle against the Iranian regime.

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  Review by wormbert ★★½

  over simplistic nd falls flat at times but has its lovely moments.

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  Review by Francali ★★★★★

  Richard Raymond's Desert Dancer really touched my heart. For me it seems impossible to imagine growing up in a world where dancing is forbidden. What a hardship this is for human beings...

  All actors of Desert Dancer did a fablulous job, which is why the story really sucked me in. Even though the storyline at times was... poorly executed? Overall, the story is carried by the sense of freedom and love - all forms of love not only between lovers.

  The custumes were stunning too. I really just enjoyed every minute of it and I am very sure, that'll watch this again.

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  Review by Gregory Wood ★★★

  This drama quite felt like a doc 2 me-but it isn't.

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  Review by aielinnae ★★½

  If you can ignore the whitewashing of such a personal struggle and cultural repression of Iran against the arts, the over simplistic plot falling flat and failing to do justice for what should have been a powerful biopic.

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  Review by Bjoerg ★★★

  I appreciate everything they tried here, a desperate call for freedom through art. But these sorts of films really need better scripts, no human talks like that. Especially not in places where the wrong person could listen at any given time.

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  Review by Charisse 👸🏻 ★★

  “So you are an artist? Beat him...artistically...”

  It’s like Footloose with higher stakes. (Confession: I have never seen Footloose)

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  Review by 💕 Jô 💕 ★★★½

  Make Footloose fiction again