25 April (film)

25 April is a 2015 New Zealand animated documentary film about the 1915 Gallipoli Campaign directed by Leanne Pooley.[1] It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.[2]

25 April
Film poster
Directed byLeanne Pooley
Written byLeanne Pooley
Tim Woodhouse
Release date
  • 14 September 2015 (2015-09-14) (TIFF)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryNew Zealand
LanguageEnglish

Reception

The film received mostly positive reviews. In New Zealand, Newshub's Tony Wright gave it four-and-a-half stars and described it as "startlingly original", praising the use of animation to depict the "depravity" of war.[3] The New Zealand Herald's Peter Calder similarly called it "evocative and moving", adding that the recreation of first-hand accounts of soldiers and a nurse "knit together to provide a comprehensive account of the doomed eight-month campaign to take the peninsula whose name resounds through our national myth."[4]

Graeme Tuckett, of Stuff.co.nz, gave 25 April a negative review with two-and-a-half stars. He wrote that it lacked "any sort of context or overview", failed to focus on any Ottoman soldiers and was "unoriginal". He compared it unfavorably with Tolga Ornek's Gallipoli (2005).[5]

Tom Peters and Sam Price of the World Socialist Web Site wrote that the documentary had some "moving portrayals" but criticized it for not opposing the First World War itself, instead taking a "national-isolationist" position. They also noted the film-makers' "almost exclusive focus on what the New Zealand and Australian forces endured" and failure to "convey the enormity of the Ottoman Empire's casualties."[6]

References
  1. "Production Commences on 25 April". NZ Film. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  2. "Sandra Bullock's 'Our Brand Is Crisis,' Robert Redford's 'Truth' to Premiere at Toronto". Variety. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  3. Wright, Tony (28 April 2016). "25 April review". Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  4. Calder, Peter (23 April 2016). "Movie review: 25 April a graphic reminder". New Zealand Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  5. "Animated Gallipoli tale lacks depth". Stuff. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  6. "25 April: Animated documentary on New Zealand's role in the Gallipoli invasion". World Socialist Web Site. 25 June 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
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