The Decomposition of the Soul
Release Date: February 7, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Released simultaneously in the U.S. with Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's Oscar-nominated fictional thriller "The Lives of Others," this chilling 82-minute documentary about three souls destroyed by the Stasi, the notorious secret police of East Germany, puts a cold, factual gloss on what might otherwise be taken for fiction. Read full review
80
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
A documentary, thoughtfully made. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Decomposition bears powerful, uncompromising witness to man's inhumanity to man, which is one of the most important things any documentary can do, though, it's also one of the most grueling. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
There are touching interviews with a couple of former inmates...The most riveting part of The Decomposition of the Soul is their return to the prison, which was closed in 1989 and turned into a memorial to its victims. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderFred Camper
Darkly poetic study of psychological brutality. Read full review
70
VarietyKen Eisner
A thorny subject is handled with care in this meticulous reconstruction of life inside the East German police state, as boiled down to the experiences of just two ex-inmates -- one man and one woman --- of a notorious Stasi prison. Overall effect is poetically thought-provoking, not depressing. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
The Decomposition of the Soul is a deliberately confining movie, but unlike "The Lives of Others," it offers no closure. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
The decomposition of the soul is the goal of a Stasi incarceration, the promised end for an enemy of the state, and there is something about the movie’s pacing--the silences, the drone of the narration ("The name of your enemy is hope?…?")--that wears you down. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
It might be too slow and morbid for American viewers without an existing interest in the subject. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
This kind of glance at history is a poor substitute for a hard, steady and expansive examination. Read full review
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