Find Movies & TV
Home
Live TV
On Demand
Discover
Explore
Movies & TV Shows
Most Popular
Leaving Soon
Categories
Action
Animation
Comedy
Crime
Descriptive Audio
Documentary
Drama
En Español
Horror
Music
Romance
Sci-Fi
Thriller
Western
Explore
Browse Channels
Featured Channels
Hallmark Movies & More
ION
LiveNOW from FOX
Categories
Hit TV
Drama TV
True Crime
Reality
News
Sports
Game Shows
History & Science
Comedy
Daytime TV
Movies
Sci-Fi & Action
Chills & Thrills
Classic TV
Food & Home
Black Entertainment
Kids & Family
Lifestyle
Music
Nature & Travel
Anime & Gaming
En Español
International
Sign In
Life, Above All
Directed by
Oliver Schmitz
PG-13
2010
1h 40m
Drama
7.1
82%
82%
Add to Watchlist
A touching mother-daughter relationship that reflects the modern South Africa.
More
Where to Watch Life, Above All
Amazon Video
Buy $12.99
Rent $3.99
Apple TV
Buy $12.99
Rent $3.99
Fandango At Home
Buy $13.99
+2 more
Cast of Life, Above All
Khomotso Manyaka
Chanda
Keaobaka Makanyane
Esther
Lerato Mvelase
Lillian
Tinah Mnumzana
Aunt Lizbet
Aubrey Poolo
Jonah
Mapaseka Mathebe
Iris
Harriet Lenabe
Mrs. Tafa
Rami Chuene
Aunty Ruth
Patrick Shai
Dr. Charles Chilume
Life, Above All Reviews
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
"Life, Above All" earns the tears it inspires. The film is about deep human emotions, evoked with sympathy and love.
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
"Life, Above All," a deeply moving South African drama about AIDS and ostracism, manages to be, paradoxically, both austere and uplifting.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Joe Williams
In such a bleak story, the redemptive ending seems rushed and unconvincing, but director Oliver Schmitz has sent us a timely dispatch from a forgotten corner of the world that is honest above all.
Arizona Republic
Randy Cordova
Perseverance is the theme of "Life, Above All," a drama that is deeply affecting, if also overwhelmingly bleak.
Los Angeles Times
Sheri Linden
Manyaka gives the character a gaze so true it could only open hearts and minds.
Seattle Times
Tom Keogh
There is less in-your-face grit in Cape Town-born director Oliver Schmitz's vision for this film than there is a careful pacing of somber revelations.
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
If [its] allegorical underpinnings blur the film's edges, the performances bring it back into focus.
New York Daily News
Joe Neumaier
The movie stares clear-eyed at a world where any kind of hope seems like a dream.
National Newspaper Publishers Association
Dwight Brown
The film plays out like a modern allegory with strong life lessons. This an emotionally satisfying and cleansing first-hand experience about that scourge called AIDS.
Slant Magazine
Ilya Tovbis
It has its heart in the right place, but it quickly begins to bleed at the edges, and soon these edges come to dominate the film's core.
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
What makes it bearable but also beautiful and stirring is the central performance by the preteen, first-time actor Khomotso Manyaka.
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
Nicely splits the difference between ethnographic realism and melodramatic uplift.
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
The fluidity of Schmitz's technique reflects a world in which tragedy and uplift are inextricably commingled.
leonardmaltin.com
Leonard Maltin
One of the year's most striking and memorable performances is given by a 12-year-old girl who never set foot in front of a camera before she was chosen to play the leading role in Life, Above All. This moving adaptation of Allan Stratton's...
NPR
Ella Taylor
The script groans beneath a mass of symbolic winking and declamatory exposition that has the unfortunate effect of turning the villagers into credulous simpletons, ready to blow with any wind that carries them.
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
This is a modest film, and an affecting one.
New York Times
Manohla Dargis
Does something that few painful dramas accomplish: It tells a tale of resilience without platitudes about the triumph of the human spirit or without false promises about an unclouded future.
New York Post
V.A. Musetto
A downer that too often resorts to melodrama.
TIME Magazine
Mary Corliss
The director and his splendid cast assure that this tale about a strong little girl fighting to keep her family alive and together has both high art and a big heart, audience appeal and gut impact.
indieWire
Eric Kohn
Although loaded with dramatic consequence, "Life, Above All" is slight.
Watch Life, Above All Videos
Chanda In The Countryside
Chanda In The Countryside
Scene
Take Plex everywhere
Watch free anytime, anywhere, on almost any device.
See the full list of supported devices
Home
Live TV
On Demand
Discover
