Louis Theroux: The Settlers

“His documentary is an intimate and often shocking picture of what is happening on the ground. It makes a perfect companion piece to last year’s Oscar-winning Isreali-Palestinian documentary No Other Land – together the films make for a fully rounded picture of an intense, low-level conflict that rarely makes the news.”
Gerard Gilbert, The i

“Theroux is under no obligation to hide where his sympathies lie, and he doesn’t, closing the film by telling a leading settler that she’s a sociopath because she doesn’t care about the suffering of Palestinians… It’s a shame that journalists aren’t allowed into Gaza, because a film in which he gently accuses a Hamas leader of being a bit of a sociopath would be one to watch.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“I’ve been watching Theroux’s films for more than three decades, since his days on Michael Moore’s TV Nation, and watching him be this forthright feels like a true watershed moment in his career. This level of stridently editorialising just hasn’t been in his toolbox until now. Whether it works or not is debatable but this new version of Louis Theroux feels like a deliberate adaptation to the ages. It suits him.”
Stuart Heritage, The Guardian

“He’s been criticised in some quarters for platforming this particular strain of extremism, but no one is getting off the hook here – and in fact, challenging people who seem beyond the pale is hardly unfamiliar territory for Theroux. Arguably, given that the situation he’s examining feels like an endlessly repeating horror show, it becomes all the more important that documentary makers find a way in. For all the familiarity of his techniques – and even if his subjects seem tragically stuck – Louis Theroux continues to evolve.”
Phil Harrison, The Independent

“If the settlers we met here were wary of Theroux returning with his signature faux naivety, it didn’t show. He was welcomed into their homes in the West Bank, some still only half-built, and given access to people who didn’t hesitate to say exactly what they believed.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Louis Theroux is turning into Mae West without the wigs. Aged 54, he’s still doing the schtick that launched his career in the 1990s, the faux-naive bumbler with an air of boyish puzzlement. And it’s wearing uncomfortably thin. A deep streak of cynicism lies under his charade. His interviewees are carefully chosen, to reinforce the BBC narrative that Israelis are the oppressors and Palestinians their victims.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail