Refusenik

As a portrait of perseverance and hope, “Refusenik,” named after the Soviet Jews who were denied the right to emigrate and persecuted for asking, is tough to beat. Sadly, it falls short as entertainment because of the plodding, overly studious approach of the director, Laura Bialis.
Tired of the Communist regime’s stripping them of their jobs and their heritage, the refuseniks turned to activism, embarking on what would become a 30-year campaign for freedom. Joined in the 1960s by supporters from the United States, Canada, France and Britain, their movement eventually came to represent grass-roots activism at its most effective.
The emotional core of the film consists of firsthand accounts from many former refuseniks and their foreign collaborators. Archival clips, some in the form of “tourist” videos that were smuggled out of the Soviet Union, and a timeline chronicling anti-Semitism there are also featured.
But the copious testimony that details the events leading up to the final victory as the Iron Curtain fell in 1989 becomes repetitious, weakening the punch of a remarkable story previously unexplored in such cinematic depth. More often than not, the filmmaking style leans toward the generic, a shame when the subject matter is anything but.
Da The New York Times, 9 Maggio 2008