Gunda
Neon | Release Date: December 11, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
89
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Original-CinKim HughesJul 16, 2021
Even those resistant to Gunda’s vegetarian message would be hard-pressed to describe these creatures cavalierly having witnessed these exquisitely framed, highly meditative moments. We see life within these beings, and we witness their undeniable will to live. And it’s beautiful. Gunda is truly one of a kind. Read full review
100
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeJun 4, 2021
A highly original, singularly beautiful film. Read full review
100
CineVueMatthew AndersonJun 3, 2021
It is hard to fully articulate how, but Gunda is as much a damning meditation on the human condition as it is a glowing, thought-provoking portrayal of a mother’s love for her children, a sow’s love for her piglets. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 5, 2021
Gunda ― which doubles as the name of the movie and the name of the pig ― is as close as we may ever come to experiencing the world as animals do, specifically the animals that become our food. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 29, 2021
Gunda is one of the most immersive and eye-widening documentaries I’ve ever seen. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comCarlos AguilarApr 15, 2021
Gunda dispenses with all explanations and emotional scheming tactics for a thoroughly pictorial experience. Read full review
100
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 10, 2020
Sublimely beautiful and profoundly moving, it offers you the opportunity to look — at animals, yes, but also at qualities that are often subordinated in narratively driven movies, at textures, shapes and light. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnNov 24, 2020
Gunda may be a meditational slow-burn, but as it unfurls its immersive audiovisual tapestry it hovers between non-fiction observation and lyrical insight, and to that end feels like an advancement of the nature documentary form. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriApr 23, 2021
Viktor Kossakovsky’s mesmerizing documentary Gunda still serves as a bracing corrective to the way animals are usually portrayed on film. Its earthy radiance reminds us of what we’ve been missing in our need to see ourselves in these creatures, instead of seeing them as themselves. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJessica KiangApr 15, 2021
Kossakovsky doesn’t anthropomorphize the animals; if anything, he zoomorphizes us. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 18, 2020
An improbably beautiful work of barnyard art. Read full review
90
VarietyGuy LodgeDec 9, 2020
Its radiantly beautiful imagery and gently immersive storytelling aren’t in service of a single browbeating message, but a broader, holistic view of where we and the animals we rear, use and consume fit into a single circle of life. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenNov 24, 2020
No party-line screed, Gunda is a soul-stirring meditation on some of our most underappreciated fellow earthlings. For many viewers, it could well be life-changing too. Read full review
90
Screen DailyJonathan RomneyNov 24, 2020
You don’t have to be an animal lover to appreciate the craft and the genuine poetic vision of a film which, though strictly unsentimental, is intensely moving, transfixing and quite genuinely unique. Read full review
88
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanApr 28, 2021
Surprisingly, it isn’t heavy-handed, moralizing, polemical or sentimental. And you can enjoy the film without knowing any of that. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenDec 3, 2020
It’s all incredibly immersive, to the point that these everyday farm animals—the sort that usually only receive a passing glance—begin to seem fascinatingly alien. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Sep 24, 2020
You won’t learn much from Gunda. It’s an arty pastoral mood piece, not an educational tool. Which is not to imply it lacks a philosophy. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid ParkinsonJun 7, 2021
Full of fascinating behavioural insights and moments that are both hilarious and adorable, this studied treatise on the personality and emotionality of domestic animals should provide plentiful food for thought. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawJun 3, 2021
The secret life of farm animals remains a secret, but a fascinating and even poignant one, in this strange and unexpectedly subtle film from the Russian documentary-maker Viktor Kossakovsky. Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de SemlyenMay 21, 2021
Artfully lit and soundtracked by chirruping bugs and buzzing bees, the experience is so soothing that it’s easy to be caught out when the world’s distressing realities elbow in. But it speaks volumes for the power of its woozy spell that it’s so tough to see it broken. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneK. Austin CollinsApr 19, 2021
The movie is a film-length argument against our usual, overly personified, cutesy depictions of animals. It is also, not incidentally, a plea to stop eating them. Read full review
75
ObserverSiddhant AdlakhaApr 22, 2021
Rare are the moments where the frame features no human-made structures or clearings, but the animals are presented so wondrously and tenderly that anything remotely human begins to feel unnatural. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleBob StraussApr 16, 2021
Farmers may wonder what the big deal is, but Gunda is quite a cinematic achievement whether you’re familiar with the livestock or not. Plus, the piglets, whom we see grow from birth to adolescence, alone are worth the price of admission. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJake CoyleApr 15, 2021
Gunda ultimately falls somewhere between banal and profound. Maybe it’s both. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonSep 14, 2020
By the time the credits roll on the film, we realize we’ve been watching not so much a sketch of the lives of farm animals as a threnody for their deaths. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Simran HansJun 6, 2021
To call the film meditative would be to undersell Kosakovskiy’s instinct for drama and tension. Read full review
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