It is a performances centric movie

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

I read the reviews to this movie: some of them reproach to Kiarostami that he missed to depict the real situation, that his view was superficial. I think these reviews missed actually the point. Kiarostami has never pretended to explain the universe he was filming. He gave only, in all honesty, a strict account on what he witnessed, nothing more. It's his truth, nothing but his truth, anything more would be hypocrisy.It is the style from all his movies: letting each new situation encountered to develop on its own. There is something new here, truly revolutionary: using the tiny video camera gives total freedom to anything, spontaneity becomes fully unrestricted. Spontaneity and interactivity: the kids are playing with the camera, inventing games and dances, like all kids from any place on Earth.And so ABC Africa marks one of the most important moments in the history of cinematography: the hand-held video camera throws away any conventions and liberates personages and places from the tyranny of the scenario, and ultimately from the tyranny of the director.

Asked by the UN International Fund for Economic Development (IFAD) to make a film documenting the plight of millions of Ugandan orphans ravaged by the recent civil war and the scourge of AIDS, Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami responded with something much more, a personal and poetic film that allows us to see the people, the land, and the culture of Uganda without relentless images of despair. The documentary, ABC Africa, captures a kaleidoscope of faces of children and adults that display an enthusiasm for life that belies the grim statistics. The children of Kampala may be without parents but they are still children, ready to burst into wondrous song or dance, or simply mug for the camera when given the opportunity.ABC Africa illuminates the work of the Uganda Women's Effort to Save orphans (UWESCO), an organization of women willing to adopt these children even though they may have many other mouths to feed. There is no voice-over narration in the film, only interviews with Ugandan relief workers who describe the extent of the problems they face. In trademark Kiarostami fashion, as a car drives through the streets of Kampala and the countryside, the digital hand-held camera records the passing scene, revealing both the beauty and the ugliness of Ugandan life. In one extraordinary sequence, we share the grief as the camera pans into a hospital for children dying of AIDS and follows a dead child being wrapped in a blanket and put into a makeshift cardboard box, then wheeled away on a bicycle to an unknown burial ground.Equally memorable is a five-minute segment shot in total darkness inside a hotel where the power has failed due to regular midnight power cuts. All we hear is the conversation of two men in Farsi as they struggle to find their hotel room, a hint of the fear that Ugandans face each night and a metaphor for the darkness in which millions of Africans live. The film also shows the well-meaning but questionable efforts of a young Austrian family to adopt an orphaned girl found on the streets and bring her to Austria. Though some might have wanted ABC Africa to address the social, economic, and political causes that have left 1.6 million children without parents, Kiarostami's camera is simply present to each given moment and the result is a revelation.

The director's aim is honest. But the movie fails to deliver on a few fronts. It stays too much on the surface, even though there is some very emotional scenes. Through all the adversity, there's also a sense that life is worth living. Filmed with a hand-held camera. Some images could have been filmed by a tourist. In fact, one could argue that Kiarostami's view of Africa is only seen through the eye of a tourist and that the film only promotes voyeurism. But still, the documentary makes us reflect on the huge problems facing Uganda, but also all of Africa today.Seen at home, in Toronto, on February 5th, 2005.72/100 (**)

Heartbreaking and beautiful documentary from Abbas Kiarostami, who once again proves that he's one of the best working directors. It's an account of AIDS-stricken Uganda and the group of women who are helping out by taking care of the over 1.5 million orphans. The documentary, shot on two digital, handheld cameras, shifts between a fact-finding mission and a more sublime bit of semi-ethnographic documentation. Kids love the camera, and they swarm around Kiarostami and his other camera operator, Seyfolah Samadian. They dance and sing and jump in front of the camera. The two men have an excellent eye for images, and they catch many that are powerful and beautiful. The music is always beautiful. As much as I loved this film, I had to groan at its final moments, which prove that Kiarostami is as much a manipulator as any of the directors who regularly get criticized for that.