Faya Dayi
Janus Films | Release Date: September 3, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
81
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleSep 17, 2021
In eschewing directness of intent for the artful massaging of space, sound and rhythm, Beshir’s film — a very personal project for the Mexican Ethiopian director, which she shot over 10 years — stakes a richer claim to our sense of the place and the effect of its most lucrative crop. Read full review
90
The New York TimesNicolas RapoldSep 2, 2021
Unifying this elliptical canvas is the sense of a contemplative search, which can also mean an escape from an altered homeland, perhaps to dull what feels lost. Read full review
90
Screen DailyAllan HunterApr 30, 2021
Jessica Beshir’s hypnotic, immersive and very beautiful documentary marks an impressive feature debut. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleySep 3, 2021
The film weaves a spell with its rhythms, sometimes slow, sometimes fast, all accompanied by a vivid and haunting sound design. Read full review
85
Film ThreatJosiah TealApr 30, 2021
Leaving a traditional narrative structure in the dust, Beshir uses breathtaking cinematography to bring you into the Horn of Africa. The movie is moving poetry about the struggles in khat fields and Ethiopia itself. Read full review
83
The Film StageJordan RaupApr 30, 2021
Journalistic in the sense that it feels like Beshir has compiled stray quotes, fleeting snapshots, and loosely connected thoughts from a journal into a dreamy cinematic form, Faya Dayi becomes more breathtaking as these images and ideas coalesce. Read full review
80
Little White LiesCheyenne BunsieJun 23, 2022
There is an entirely straightforward way of making a docudrama about this subject, yet Beshir’s bold approach leaves much more of a lasting memory. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellJun 21, 2022
If not in the right frame of mind, Faya Dayi is difficult to get a handle on. But that, perhaps, is the trick. Instead of trying to pin the film down and understand it logically, surrendering to its poetry and rhythms reveals something altogether more meaningful. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeApr 30, 2021
Faya Dayi is predominantly a mood piece that seeks to evoke the leaf’s own perception-altering properties. Read full review
76
Paste MagazineDom SinacolaSep 2, 2021
Like RaMell Ross’s Hale County This Morning, This Evening, Faya Dayi wanders lovely, liminal spaces between narrative and fairytale, between documentary film and something looser, something personally vérité. Read full review
75
IndieWireTambay ObensonApr 30, 2021
Faya Dayi is a film that invites the mind and soul with its visual grandeur, and keeps the viewer engaged with a tension and mystery that seems to be lurking beneath its surface. It’s familiar yet foreign — a world one must at once surrender to, yet be careful to not completely lose oneself in. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJake ColeApr 26, 2021
The documentary’s aesthetics strikingly channel the euphoric feelings induced by Ethopia’s top cash crop. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJun 20, 2022
When the wisps of khat smoke clear away, it is perhaps not easy to decide exactly what is left behind, or to decide if khat is a cultural practice to be celebrated or rejected: but there are some marvellous images and moods in this misty, impressionistic study. Read full review
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