The beauty of the film itself can't mask the horrifying nature of everything that's unfolding.

| Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 27, 2020

The material, however, has been artfully arranged into an epic personality clash between a swaggering poacher, simply known as X, and his nemesis, a sympathetic wildlife ranger called Asan.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 3, 2020

The story is so cleanly shaped that you suspect a bit of tweaking, but it's certainly fascinating.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 2, 2020

Fewer fags and more facts would have made When Lambs Become Lions perfect. Still, its non-preachy stance is a revelation.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 24, 2020

Kasbe makes the most of his extraordinary access by presenting the film vérité style, preferring to immerse the audience in his characters' lives to better make the case for each of their choices.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 15, 2020

The grey area between who is right and wrong feels like it has grown ten-fold by the end of the film.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Feb 13, 2020

This is certainly a taut and well-filmed atmospheric piece.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 12, 2020

Jon Kasbe spent four dangerous years making 'When Lambs Become Lions' and he's been rewarded with some thrilling moments.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 7, 2020

Unfolding with the pace of a thriller, the film seems to promise conflict between its two main subjects yet as events develop viewers will find themselves increasingly uncertain of the direction it's going to take.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 5, 2020

Ultimately, watching this film leaves you feeling a mixture of helplessness and despair.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Jan 21, 2020

It is here that the director takes a clear side, his film clearly denounces the extreme poverty that both the poachers and the rangers face.

| Jan 2, 2020

[I]n the hands of documentarian Jon Kasbe, making his striking feature debut after a handful of short films, the movie is something far less binary, and far more intriguing.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 9, 2019

Kasbe spent years among these people, and his movie is an intense 74-minute distillation of his dedication.

| Dec 5, 2019

Think Michael Mann's Heat but in East Africa and with real-world stakes.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 26, 2019

This disgusted me in that it doesn't make any moral judgments.

| Nov 23, 2019

It could have been tighter and made its points more saliently, but it is very skillful in its immersion.

| Nov 23, 2019

A really fascinating and well-made cinéma vérité documentary.

| Nov 23, 2019

... a powerfully humane look at an ecological problem without easy solutions.

| Nov 22, 2019

Grapples with thorny material without overstaying its welcome.

| Nov 22, 2019

Visually arresting and startlingly intimate.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 22, 2019