"Veteran Swiss filmmaker Markus Imhoof easily staves off "just another refugee doc" shrugs with the unusual personal scope of his study, as he draws a parallel between the current crisis and his own first-hand recollection of human displacement across unwelcoming European borders in the Second World War." (Variety)

"Drawing inspiration from his personal encounter with the Italian refugee child Giovanna during World War II, Markus Imhoof tells how refugees and migrants are treated today: on the Mediterranean Sea, in Lebanon, in Italy, in Germany and in Switzerland." (Cineuropa)

"Like Gianfranco Rosi's 'Fire at Sea', this film details the strange, alienated choreography of getting refugees out of their collapsing inflatables (which the gangsters and people smugglers knew had no chance surviving the journey), on to ships, there to be examined, recorded, classified and asked to wait patiently until land is reached." (The Guardian)