Prayers for the Stolen
Netflix | Release Date: November 17, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeApr 12, 2022
It captures the wary, precarious nature of a community that relies financially on the same forces – the rampaging drug cartels – that also terrorise it. Huezo taps into the intense vibration between young female friends who treasure each other above all else. Read full review
100
CineVueChristopher MachellApr 12, 2022
Prayers for the Stolen is fundamentally an account of powerlessness, of the insidious ways that forces act invisibly, immeasurably, and often horrifically on those with the least ability to resist them. Read full review
100
The PlaylistCarlos AguilarNov 16, 2021
"Prayers” stands as a continuation of [Huezo’s] brilliance and expands it to a storytelling format with distinct tools for engagement, yet the impact is just as searing. Huezo’s ardor for humanistic examination loses no fire in this metamorphosis. Read full review
90
VarietyJessica KiangNov 16, 2021
The film may be called “Prayers for the Stolen,” but it is much more a heartbroken lament for the circuits that are broken when the stealing happens, and for the spaces the stolen leave behind. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenNov 16, 2021
As a portrait of a besieged community carrying on as best it can, the film is keenly observed, its character observations lucid and engrossing. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 12, 2022
A complex, subtle, tender and heart-rending story of a young girl’s upbringing in a village menaced by the drug cartels and people traffickers. Read full review
80
Little White LiesMarina AshiotiApr 12, 2022
Huezo’s background as a documentary filmmaker is clear in the way this debut narrative feature so solemnly and matter-of-factly observes a community that exists beyond this fictional ‘slice of life’ representation. Read full review
80
Screen DailyWendy IdeNov 16, 2021
Huezo’s picture, which is loosely adapted from a novel by Jennifer Climent, is distinctive in its child’s-eye-view of this most abnormal of normalities. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyNov 17, 2021
Of all of the things Tatiana Huezo captures in Prayers for the Stolen, her first narrative feature, the terror of the night is most unnerving. Read full review
75
IndieWireSusannah GruderSep 30, 2021
Told through the lens of three girls as they grow up in a rural town in the Guerrero mountains, Huezo’s film is a murky, mesmerizing look at what it feels like to come of age in a place where young women have a target on their backs, and where the adults are as powerless as the children. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonSep 27, 2021
There’s a haunting beauty to Tatiana Huezo’s depiction of the gradual cross-contamination of childhood innocence and criminal aggression. Read full review
70
The New York TimesBeatrice LoayzaNov 17, 2021
The film swings back and forth from scenes of pastoral bliss to brutality, generating a narrative that, while unfocused, is nevertheless anchored by the tender and wounded performances by its adolescent cast. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleNov 16, 2021
The result is a film made of loosely connected scenes, the best ones floating between observation and storytelling, not unlike a dream. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 23, 2021
A movie that progresses at this rate gives you a lot of time to pick over what it’s really getting at. Read full review
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