It is, what is more. the most attractive and optimistic film at present on show in London. Which is not to sav that it is without ferocity.

| May 7, 2021

Even the superb sepia-toned print seems to be enjoying itself, basking in the Martinique sun as Palcy illustrates her theme with bold and confident brushstrokes.

| May 7, 2021

Palcy's film is as strong on poetry as on protest.

| May 7, 2021

Euzhan Palcy brings so much warmth to her film Sugar Cane Alley that even a funeral scene midway through has an unexpected sweetness.

| May 7, 2021

Like many (perhaps most?) great works of art, it's depressing and exalting, showing us the backbreaking life of the native cane harvesters in the 1930s and the attempt of one radiantly sunny boy named Jose to escape that life through education.

| May 7, 2021

Although Sugar Cane Alley is about life's inequities, it is also about hope. Thanks to the courageous example of people like Tine and Medouze, Jose stands a good chance of escaping the canefields without bartering away his soul.

| May 7, 2021

Nothing much happens, but its excellent cast of bright-faced children and wizened elders makes it well worth seeing.

| May 7, 2021

Sugar Cane Alley opens tough, unblinkingly depicting a hard, unjust existence. But writer-director Euzhan Palcy... celebrates the wondrous ability of people to endure and to experience joy despite harsh lives.

| May 7, 2021

This gently revealing, but overly long, period piece represents quite an accomplishment for Palcy, a young woman who shows remarkable potential as a film maker.

| May 7, 2021

It's a quiet film, but it makes you want to cheer.

| May 7, 2021

Every year or so we are reminded that very best movies are not those projects that grow out of a corporate strategy to corral an audience but, rather, out of an individual's desire to communicate an intensely personal vision.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 7, 2021

Improve yourself. Go and see Sugar Cane Alley.

| May 7, 2021

There has not been a more wrenching statement of what poverty does to children since Hector Babenco's controversial Pixote.

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 7, 2021

[Euzhan Palcy has] taken the painful subject of Third World exploitation and turned it into a universal message about dignity and love. And she's somehow made it funny, to boot.

| May 6, 2021

Miss Palcy, who was born in Martinique but now lives in Paris, begins to pull a good story out of the crowded, noisy atmosphere.

| Dec 31, 2019

Sugar Cane Alley has a loose, easy feel, the anecdotal raggedness of remembrance.

| Jan 4, 2018

Shot in ochre hues, with a remarkable polish, the movie never allows itself the easy route of angry misery, but actively engages its themes with optimism and its characters with love.

| Jun 24, 2006

[The film] sees its world so clearly because... Palcy grew up on Martinique. At the same time, she doesn't lean on their heartwarming story. She's making a movie here, and it's smart, sometimes hard-edged story that earns its moments of sentiment.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 23, 2004