Popular reviews

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  Review by Graham

  Created within the vivid imaginations of a group of Swaziland orphan children and brought to life with colourful animated styling, Liyana is a cleverly constructed African folk story full of heart.

  A tale that tells the adventures of a young girl and her family, the film is told in an outside-in narrative fashion, with the film's young creators reading what their minds envisioned out loud as the animation attempts to keep up and bring it all to life, and on the whole it works really well.

  The story itself is clean a straightforward with a nicely framed underlying message, but I won't elaborate, as this is definitely 80 minutes of film best experienced with as little prior knowledge as possible to get maximum impact from its smart dialogue and beautiful animation.

  Currently playing on TubiTV US: Liyana

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  March around the world 2022 - Swaziland 🇸🇿

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  Review by Youssef ✨ ★★★★

  This one sparks joy. 

  Liyana is a lovely animation/documentary/fairytale from eSwatini (and my first film from the country). I don’t want to talk much about this one but I think it’s definitely worth a watch if you have the chance to see it and is a beautiful showcase for the power of film as a form of storytelling and the power of both as therapy. 

  Liyana is a fictional story created by the kids in the documentary and turned into an animation. The children are wiser than their years and I loved seeing both the heartbreak and hope that come from translating their personal experiences into a story. Also enjoyed the insight it brought into a part of Swazi culture.…

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  Review by Luís ★★★½

  Fofo!

  A criação da jornada de Liyana é uma desculpa criativa e sensível pras crianças se abrirem sobre suas dores e traumas. Isso fica claro pelo quanto a história de origem da personagem é a mais trágica que existe (perdas familiares, violência doméstica, HIV, amadurecimento precoce, ...), refletindo suas vidas, só que sem o peso da realidade.
  Já a animação parece aqueles livros 3D, que vão formando figuras quando você abre as páginas. Feito pra ser contemplativo mesmo, poucos movimentos, mas com um render lindo! Só não é tão lindo quanto crianças empolgadas contando história.

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  Review by Movie Good or Movie Bad? ★★★

  One Popular Film From Every Country In The World #99
  Eswatini

  Liyana is lovingly crafted from the imagination of young children, as we see these children craft a story about a fictional character, the titular Liyana, as she rescues her two brothers. Hope is crafted easily here in these stories and there is also some sadness as these young children are clearly projecting their own lives onto this character. I can appreciate the distance created initially with these children so that their trauma is not exploited, but I want to name, the use of still images to present the animation is understandable and really hinders the presentation at the same time.

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  Review by Алексей Дружинин ★★★½

  Еженедельный конкурс анимации 2023
  Неделя 22 (24) Extra credit: Africa

  For the first time I see an unusual combination of graphic animation and a documentary. The action takes place in Swaziland, Africa - we are presented with the rich inner world of orphans with HIV. Before us, an African story is being built with the passage of tests for the created girl Liana, based on the personal experiences and difficulties of orphans.

  Here, each child has the opportunity to talk about his personal life, and the difficulties that these children had to face. The fate of each of them is not easy - someone lost their parents, someone lost their grandmother. Some of them take the necessary pills, while others…

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  Review by nadija ★★★★

  This is the first time I've ever watched a combination of animation and documentary. The film has an interesting approach to storytelling, and having the children narrate the animated movie makes it come alive. I love how every child gets their turn to tell their own story and how the teacher respects each idea. The animated visuals are beautiful, but as everyone has said in the review section, I wish there were more animations rather than static illustrations. Nonetheless, it's still enjoyable to watch :)

  Weekly Animation Challenge 2023
  Week 6 - An animated film with predominantly black characters

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  Review by Peter H ★★★★★

  The Weekly Animation Challenge: An animated film from Africa

  I caught this at the Cascade Festival Of African Films, and it is in great need of a distributor. This is the best film on therapy I have ever seen, despite nothing on screen being described as therapy. Watching these children transform their trauma and forge hope for the future moved me to tears.

  The animated scenes are gorgeous. Set to the voices of child narrators, they depict their folk hero and avatar, Liyana as she goes on her adventure. The computer-generated imagery works like a painting, with little movement but incredible colors, shading, and depth.

  Liyana is one of the most beautiful film experiences I have had in a long time.

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  Review by Julia ★★★

  With a central hook this interesting and heartwarming, the actual animated component becomes a bit of an afterthought. This is an engaging watch but I think I'd have been just as pleased if the whole thing just stuck with the children.

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  Review by Alex K ★★★½

  It really struck me how aware these kids were of things like cheating and AIDS that I was not aware of at their age and yet one kid still frames Liyana's father getting AIDS like he got bitten by a bedbug, like HIV popped out and bit him.

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  Review by Gus Johnson ★★★½

  There is power in story. Film is just a modern version of myth-making akin to Liyana's children creators. I did not realize this was a documentary going in and thought it would be a fully animated film; the actual format of cutting between the children's narration, beautiful storybook frames, and the reality of the Swaziland orphans' home is a dynamic documentary format. I was glad to see so many children at this screening and that they seemed to be trasnfixed to the screen though there were no minions or fast-paced action scenes; the simplicity of the hero's journey is enough to captivate. Creativity is therapy; maybe not a complete cure but a helpful salve for these young ones who have already faced so much life. I wish there was more back story and focus on the actual class of kids but still a comforting doc.

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  Review by dan p ★★★★★

  Liyana is the reason film should exist

  this is a documentary about a group orphaned children in Swaziland exploring their traumatic early lives through collaborative storytelling as a form of art therapy, accompanied by stunning illustrations and beautiful music. it's a captivating, dark fairytale, but also a reflection of these kids' lives, in their own words

  it was amazing to hear the (now adult) children speak after the film about their experience with the project and their plans for the future. the directors' commitment to depicting this work from the kids' perspectives is incredible

  just wow. go see this!

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  Review by Tosin🍿 ★★★★

  "It is more difficult to live your life, than writing a story." - Zweli 

  Such a welcome innovative surprise Liyana is. This film is evidence of why you should never underestimate the power and reach of a child’s imagination. Set in Swaziland, with emphasis on HIV epidemic orphans, comes a story of hope told in the most spectacular way. There is a missed opportunity to give brief back stories to some of the kids shown here, even though you do get a sense their stories as a collective are fairly similar. Very moving and poignant, with a brilliantly executed mix of realism and the fantastical.

  Best of 2017