Reviews

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  ★★★★ review by Samuel Scott on Letterboxd

  Makes me truly grateful to live in the UK. What is going on in the Middle East is heartbreaking, and these stories and the footage that accompanies them are both hard to watch and powerful. Between this and The Square, I'm not sure we need any more Arab Spring documentaries.

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  ★★★★ review by Mahnoor Kamran on Letterboxd

  8/10

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  ★★★½ review by Sumner Forbes on Letterboxd

  “We Are the Giant tells the stories of ordinary individuals who are transformed by the moral and personal challenges they encounter when standing up for what they believe is right. Powerful and tragic, yet inspirational, their struggles for freedom echo across history and offer hope against seemingly impossible odds.” – Letterboxd

  This is a powerful documentary that compares and contrasts the views of various revolutionaries throughout history and the modern age. While it does run the risk of becoming rather sentimental towards the end of the film, the divergent paths that the subjects have taken during the Arab Spring has potential to inspire debate as to what constitutes the most effective means to affect change.

  Highlight the conflicts in Libya, Syria, and Bahrain, Barker researches revolutionaries from each nation. It is interesting to consider the different approaches that some of the different subjects have taken to change the fortunes in their respective countries. Does peaceful protesting become irrelevant when the regime isn’t afraid to kill its own people?

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  ★★★★ review by Col Todd on Letterboxd

  Powerful...

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  ★★★★ review by Ken Rudolph on Letterboxd

  There have been so many documentaries recently about the Arab Spring and various struggles against totalitarian dictatorships in the world today that it is easy to watch just another similar film with complacency. But the power of motion pictures is that it is still possible to make an impact by sheer film making skill...by featuring undeniable images (so-called "smoking guns") with the ability to change minds and affect change.

  This film personalizes this decade's freedom movements by telling three different stories...of a man who lost his American born son in the Libyan revolution against Gaddafi. Of two protestors still facing heavy odds in Syria fighting both the Assad government and ISIS. And primarily of a family (two sisters and their father) persecuted ruthlessly on the Gulf island of Bahrain for peacefully protesting their government's human rights abuses. All of this is put in perspective by showing graphics and illustrations of past struggles: the American revolution, black slavery and civil rights, Burma, South Africa, China etc., etc., etc. until I weep for the human race. Except I fear that I personally have become desensitized to it all by the sheer number of similar documentaries that I've watched this year. That takes nothing away from the powerful message this film imparts. This is yet another film that cries out to be watched.

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