Rafiki

DVD Features

Discs: 1

• Highest Rating
  "[A]t home, where homosexuality remains a criminal offense, “Rafiki” has been slapped with a ban for its positive representation — a state of affairs that makes this lively, brightly performed film impossible not to celebrate...."
  Guy Lodge, Variety
• Highest Rating
  "A love story for the time"
  Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times
• Highest Rating
  "Rafiki presents a radiant, vivacious portrait of young love that owes as much to “Romeo and Juliet” as “Bend It Like Beckham” and “Moonlight.” Although Kahiu is sharply critical of the hypocrisies of Kenyan culture, she is just as attuned to the sweetness of romance at its most instinctive, tender and fragile. For its formal simplicity and directness, Rafiki is a small revelation, not least because it marks the breakthrough of a filmmaker of such exhilarating, cheerfully courageous vision."
  Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post
• Highest Rating
  "[A] vibrant, pulsing piece of work, keying off the joy of young love and unexpected discovery. "
  Jason Bailey, Flavorwire
• Highest Rating
  "[W]ith Rafiki, the director has produced a wholly new vision of African filmmaking that is vibrant, compassionate, and joyous."
  Sarah-Tai Black, Cinema Scope
• Highest Rating
  "A burst of unfiltered teenage energy. Lively and full of vision! [Kahiu] has a wonderful eye for detail and lyricism."
  Emily Yoshida, Vulture
• Highest Rating
  "Jubilant...floods the viewer's senses with a celebration of color, cheer, and song Bold and beautiful, with a keen sense of time and place, Kahiu has created something truly special with Rafiki..."
  Jen Johans, Film Intuition
• Highest Rating
  "Rafiki’s slotting of two African women into this familiar romantic structure represents a radical and important upending of contemporary Kenyan sexual mores"
  Pat Brown, Slant Magazine
• Highest Rating
  "A dynamic, smoothly-executed tale of impossible love that brings fresh energy to a subject that may seem overly familiar to western eyes. ...[R]eminiscent of the early work of Spike Lee."
  Allan Hunter, Screen Daily
• Highest Rating
  "[B]y framing an effervescent lesbian romance against a backdrop of political allegiance and the societal taboos surrounding LGBTQ rights, Rafiki finds its voice – and deserves to shout it, loud and clear."
  Ella Kemp, Dazed
• Highest Rating
  "It’s undoubtedly a shame that the film’s home country wasn't initially willing to acknowledge the beauty of Rafiki’s depictions of lesbian love and countless other real-life same-sex relationships. Kahiu’s film reinforces that being who you are and loving in spite of the opinions of others is still a revolutionary act. So cheers to the Kenyan viewers, who now have the opportunity to see Rafiki for what it is — colorful, warm and real. Rating: 5/5"
  Joi Childs, Shadow and Act
• Highest Rating
  "...a dizzyingly beautiful love story of two young women coming of age in a place that’s hostile to what brings out the best in them."
  Andrea Thompson, Cultured Vultures
• Highest Rating
  "While Western countries are still struggling to produce many queer stories that don’t end in misery and death, or that focus solely on the white male experience, the Kenyan-focused, neon-pink romance of Rafiki is exactly what the world needs."
  Katy Moon, One Room with a View
• Highest Rating
  "Rafiki is a stunning lesbian love story - in a place where that's forbidden."
  Cate Young, Nylon
• Highest Rating
  "Audiences here in the states will enjoy this tender, memorable movie, and recognize Kahiu as a director of note on the rise. For her colorful, deeply effecting point of view, and her intentional inclusion of female casts and crew members, she is a filmmaker to watch."
  Leslie Combemale, Alliance of Women Film Journalists
• Highest Rating
  "Kahiu captures the essence of what it means to be a (lesbian) woman in modern Kenya and questions the long-standing conservatism that prevents the birth of a more tolerant society. Depicting a lesbian story, reflecting on homosexuality in a Kenyan context with ease and replacing the extraordinary with the ordinary showcases exactly the kind of bravery the world needs right now."
  Barbara Majsa, Ioncinema
• Highest Rating
  "[A] modest, at times striking drama that is perhaps more notable for what it represents than what it is."
  Steve Pond, The Wrap
• Highest Rating
  "Rafiki is an absolute marvel of a film,[...]Americans also have a lot to learn from this one."
  Leigh Monson , Birth. Movies. Death.
• Highest Rating
  "Kahiu’s fluid direction and wholly empathetic performances by Mugatsia and Munyivamake the movie special."
  Peter Howell , The Toronto Star
• Highest Rating
  "This director knows how to capture on film the wonderful feeling of falling in love"
  Charles Mudede, The Stranger
• Highest Rating
  "What makes Kahiu’s film essential beyond that moral and artistic victory is its ability to instill hope within a hopeless situation. From the colorful opening credits to the stellar soundtrack to the beautiful cinematography putting Kenya’s vibrancy on display, she’s given the world a depiction of romance (same sex or not) that’s just as cute, relatable, and potent as those Americans see every month at their local theaters. "
  Jared Mobarak, The Film Stage
• Highest Rating
  "Directed by female Kenyan filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu, the colorful, moving and hope-filled drama is all the more potent given that homosexuality is still illegal in Kenya, a fact that permeates every facet of the film."
  R. Kurt Osenlund, NBC News