Contains important messages about human rights, cultural liberty and the significance of artistic expression but, despite the real-life source material, is weighed down with clichés.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 3, 2021

On a grand scale, Ghaffarian's story of putting his life on the line to create art is poignant and inspirational. It's a stirring reminder of art's true vitality.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 14, 2019

Bogged down by trying to be two very separate things and dragging its plot for a bit more time than it should have. A film with a lot of potential, but unfortunately underwhelming.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 14, 2018

We didn't need a pseudo-Persian Footloose to imagine dance as a means of political resistance, but surely there's no harm in drawing inspiration from [Andrew] Ghaffarian's bravely creative life.

| Aug 24, 2017

With robotic depictions of Iran's 'morality police', the political subtext is strictly one-dimensional. But with ace choreographer Akram Khan on board, the dancing is powerful.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 2, 2017

Raymond might sometimes hit his beats too hard but he does keep his eye on the bigger picture.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 7, 2016

Characters' brief moments of freedom are stirringly depicted in Richard Raymond's based-on-fact bio-picture, Desert Dancer.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 20, 2016

A lifeless, contrived and remarkably unengaging rallying cry for freedom of expression and self-fulfilment in the face of adversity.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 22, 2016

There is so little political depth and dramatic tension in the leaden script that the subversive aspect of Ritchie and Pinto's platonic partnership is almost negligible.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 21, 2016

It is montage heavy and toe-curlingly naive.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 21, 2016

It strives to be a rousing tale of rebellion, but the over-earnest result is more slow shuffle than kicky capoeira.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 21, 2016

Despite that fact that Pinto is such a vital performer, her character's backstory is handled so clumsily that it feels like one more clich thrown onto the pile.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 18, 2015

The sum total is an interesting true-life story that just doesn't make for a great movie. Desert Dancer has its moments, but it feels like a story that was better lived than re-told.

| Nov 5, 2015

... too earnest and cliched - with awkward English dialogue, considering the setting - and tends to oversimplify Afshin's true-life struggles.

| May 1, 2015

By the time Desert Dancer heads for its shades-of-Argo climax, it's hard not to wish there had been a bit less melodrama, and a bit more desert dancing.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 24, 2015

There would seem to be only one thing that the act of dancing cannot free the characters in Desert Dancer from, and that's the movie they're in.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 17, 2015

Desert Dancer strays too frequently into melodrama to have much sticking power.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 16, 2015

The characters are thin and the villains are one-note, but one gets worked up anyway, much as one gets played by a solid romance - or a dance movie.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 15, 2015

The story of freedom from oppression and freedom of expression in Iran is a somber and ruthless one, but you'd never know the true extent of it by seeing this film.

| Original Score: 4/10 | Apr 13, 2015

In his feature film debut, director Richard Raymond keeps the story moving despite some dramatic cliches.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 10, 2015