It immerses you in its reality one toe at a time, until suddenly you are in over your head, gasping for air as the horror of the situation reveals itself in all its savage devastation.
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

Less an exposé of corrupt individuals than a terribly lucid investigation into mankind’s mad capacity for (self-)destruction, it’s a film that will surely prick the conscience of all who see it.
TIME OUT

The West’s plundering of the natural resources of Third World countries may not be a new story, but Austrian director Hubert Sauper’s compelling documentary succeeds in revealing the subject in a memorable new light.
BBC

The grinding poverty of the inhabitants’ daily lives is shocking and humbling
EMPIRE

Hubert Sauper’s brutal documentary is up for an Oscar, and it’s easy to see why.
LA CITY BEAT

A film of intelligence and great empathy that examines the corrosive effects of imperialism on people often left off the pages of history’s textbooks. A heartbreakingly great film.
APOLLO GUIDE

Sauter’s illustration of economic Darwinism at its most primal and unforgiving is a harrowing vision of human life as collateral damage in the modern global economy.
SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER

Darwin’s Nightmare is an urgent, horrific, yet at times oddly blinkered vision of the crisis of modern Africa.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

Sauper’s camera, which would fog up if it had tear ducts, looks over Tanzania’s nastiness with gloomy forthrightness.
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

A despairing, essential documentary.
BOSTON GLOBE

An unforgettable film that ranks as mandatory viewing for anyone who’s concerned with the plight of Africa
FILM CRITIC

Darwin’s Nightmare” fully lives up to its chilling title, a cinema verite journey to the heart of darkness- not the heart of Africa, where it transpires, but to the murkiest reaches of human apathy and despair.
THE WASHINGTON POST

Sauper’s delicately horrific documentary is a short, sharp slap in the face of the developed world, and a long overdue one at that.
AUSTIN CHRONICLE

An uncompromising portrait of how global capitalism can exploit an area’s resources to the point of near annihilation.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

The concept of starving hordes servicing wealthy nations drives a lot of recent agitprop documentaries and magazine articles, but Sauper creates a more soul-shattering context….Darwin’s Nightmare would be just another “ain’t it a shame” piece were it not for the way Sauper gradually reveals how all this human misery might play out
AV CLUB